Migration & Status Achievement: Study on Slum Dwellers in a Metropolitan City in Bangladesh

Due to multiple-factors, bracketed popularly in ‘push-pull’ category, migration, both internal and external, is taking place in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, the dominant form of migration is from rural to urban centers. For, Bangladesh is predominantly an agrian rural society for 80.0 percent of the total population lives in 87319 villages. The urban centers of Bangladesh are developing rapidly at the coast of the rural people. Lack of opportunities in the rural areas have compelled the rural poor to migrate to the urban centers, especially to the metropolitan cities where one can have relatively more opportunities to enhance their life style, which to many, remains a myth. In fact, the lack of opportunities, including others factors, pushed the rural people to abandon their forefathers’ homesteads to settle in the urban centers with a hope of raising their status. The present paper sharply attempts at revealing the causes behind migration as well as stating the status achievement, if any, of the migrants living in a metropolitan city of Bangladesh, based on primary data. The result of this study indicated urgency of job as well as expectation of higher income was significant determinants behind migration. Young people were more likely to get migrated. Male principal migrants were more prominent. As far as status achievement is concerned, migrants were found to achieve their dreamt status horizontally rather than vertically.