Impact of Rural to Urban Migration on Family Dynamics and Social Cohesion in Rural Pakistan

Abstract

This research explored the effects of rural to urban migration on family system and social integration in rural Khyber paktunkhwa Pakistan. During a semi-structured interview and a case study, 30 participants were identified: uprooting disrupts traditional family dynamics and shifts the burden and distance on the stay behind family member. While taking a closer look on the positive impact of remittances, the negatives are also very important; these include dependency problems arising due to the boost that remittances effect on the financial situations and infrastructure available in the country. Migration alters usually recognized social relations and undermines community cohesiveness. This paper highlights the importance of specific intervention and community based organisation programmes. Future studies should aim at identifying the long-term consequences and perform more comparison on regional basis.