Inter-Provincial Migration in Pakistan 1971-1981

The process of international and internal migration involving Pakistan is not a new phenomena as observed in many third world countries. Helbock (1975) studied life-time migrants in the 12 largest cities of Pakistan in 1961. He found that on average, about 15 percent of the residents of these cities had come originally from other districts, the highest rates in these cities showed 30 percent life-time migrants, while the lowest showed 5 percent indicating a wide variation in city growth rate. Irfan (1979) pointed out that internal migration is becoming increasingly long distance and rural urban in orientation in Pakistan. Many other scholars have made valuable contributions to the literature on migration. Details of such studies are found elsewhere [Farooqui and Rukanuddin (1987); Hussain, Afzal and Syed (1965); Ahmad and Abbasi (1981); Shah (1986); Naveed-i-Rahat (1981); Usami (1978); Selier and Nientied (1986); Van Pinxteren (1974)]. Most of the studies (cited above) on internal migration in Pakistan based on census data concentrated on volume and direction and some studies based on sample surveys devoted to patterns and causes of mobility in the country. Although all of these studies provide useful estimates, none of them gives a broad analysis of provincial level figures by age and sex characteristics of the migrants during the intercensal period, which could be used by the planners, policy-makers and administrators.