THE EMERGENCE OF MIGRATION THEORY AND A SUGGESTED NEW DIRECTION

Abstract

Abstract. The literature on internal labour migration is surveyed using a fourfold taxonomic scheme. The potential migrant, as presented in the existing literature, can be viewed as a supplier of labour, an investor in human capital and a consumer of regional amenities such as public goods. The paper develops a fourth approach which treats the household, rather than the individual, as the migrating unit and which views the potential migrant as a producer of home produced commodities. The continuities as well as the contrasts between the four approaches are discussed in the paper.