Family Migration to Urban Areas and its Consequences on Destination Communities in Sri Lanka (Case Study in Colombo District)

Abstract

Urban ward family migration is one of the key aspects of internal migration process. Mainly it is influenced by rearranging population and workforce in urban areas. In the developing countries, urban ward family migration is increased due to the influence of factors such as socio-demographic, economic, political, and cultural and environments etc. Literature on migration in national and international level has focused on various approaches of internal migration. However, in local context family migration to urban areas and its consequences are rarely addressed. Selected urban communities in Colombo district by case studies and in-depth interviews to obtain qualitative data. Content analysis method used to analyze different areas of qualitative data. Findings revealed that the most migrant families tended to migrate to urban areas in Colombo district as a result of inadequate social amenities and poor economic background in the origin places. Further, movements of young respondents of the sample are unplanned. Therefore, they have faced the unemployment issues at the urban destination. Low educated and less experienced migrants are engaged as the employees of informal sector with low wages. Therefore, it is clear that parents’ aspirations towards their children’s education are low. As results of that, several less educated school children are addicted to use illegal drugs. Since increase the urban population density migrants as well as others have suffered from environmental issues; air pollution, traffic congestion, house congestion, land filling issues under constructions and flooding. Findings suggested that improving physical infrastructure and human capital utilization at rural contexts reduce the urban ward migration. Finally, as a longtime solution, government should create a favorable condition for the young and productive population to work and live in every part of the country.