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Migration is a natural outcome when society faces a shortage of resources or opportunities. While migration in India has been studied extensively, these discussions often do not include one of the most important stakeholders involved-young people. Youth constitute a valuable human capital resource base for India, and migration of young people has become more frequent as a result of neoliberal policies, coupled with social, political, economic and demographic conditions.

Youth Migration in Emerging India focuses on this challenging and neglected aspect of Indian society. Although marriage-based migration dominates youth migration in India, this volume focuses on the significance of education and employment-related migration through the lens of the youth.

Relying on primary data collected from the field and secondary data from sources like the Census of India and National Sample Survey Office, the authors analyse the causes of youth migration and its impacts on the Indian economy. Young people opt for migration to improve their economic prospects, and the demand for skilled youth is growing. In this context, young people themselves become a pull factor for migration, as the remittances they send home improve both their economic prospects and the Indian economy.

The book focuses on several aspects of youth migration, ranging from distress migration to Indian cities for survival to the voluntary move made by affluent, urban Indians for higher education abroad. Also studied are the latest National Youth Policies of the government, which identifies migrant youth as a target group.

An important contribution to the area of youth and migration studies, this volume will be useful to students and scholars of migration studies, development studies, public policy and planning and policy think tanks.

Contents: Introduction: Indian youth and migration/S. Irudaya Rajan and P. Sivakumar. 1. Associated reasons of internal migration in India: the education–employment divide/Udaya S. Mishra and Pinak Sarkar. 2. Regional disparity and youth migration in India with special focus on the EAG states/Soumi Mukherjee and K. C. Das. 3. Outmigration of young people and its role in diversifying livelihoods in rural India: a study of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar/Nandan Kumar and R. B. Bhagat. 4. Is youth migration only survival strategy?: a study of rural Bihar, India/Rajnish Kumar, Mayumi Murayama and Fumiko Oshikawa. 5. Costs and benefits of outmigration of young people from rural West Bengal: a case study of two districts/K. K. Bagchi. 6. Migration and vector-borne diseases: a sociological study of youth migrants and their vulnerability in Kolkata/Nibedita Bayen and Ausmita Dey. 7. Sustainability quotient of the student migration in various metropolises of India/Pinak Sarkar. 8. Youth migration for education from the north-eastern region to the different states of India/Rikil Chyrmang and So-E-Mi Kyndiah. 9. Indian students’ migration: a critical analysis/Amba Pande. 10. International migration for higher education: Indian students in Singapore/Anusha Thallam. Epilogue: youth migration in India/S. Irudaya Rajan and P. Sivakumar. Index.