ABSTRACT
One of the conclusions of my research on migration in India, which focused on the labour market in an industrial neighbourhood in Calcutta, was that unskilled labour was not only migratory, but also that the migration has remained circular. Usually, migration is by single men, part of the family stays behind in the area of origin, and the migrants continue to maintain close links with their areas of origin and invest their savings in the village rather than in the town [de Haan, 1994]. This is not a unique phenomenon, and common in many parts of India and elsewhere, as the other contributions in this volume show. But surprisingly, this pattern of migration has existed for over 100 years, and it has existed in circumstances where work offered was relatively permanent. Circular migration is not the transitory phenomenon that many, particularly modernisation theories, expect it to be. I concluded that more attention needs to be paid to the effects of this pattern of migration, on both urban and rural areas.
