Why The Willingness to Return to The City? A Study from Uttarakhand on ‘The Reversal of Reverse Migration’

Abstract

Migrant workers are returning to cities even after facing stigma and discrimination during their reverse migration after the pandemic lockdown last year.  Our study aims to understand the ‘reversal of reverse migration’ and attempts to understand their willingness to return to the cities and explore the differences in their way of life in their native villages, and place of migration. Ten participants were selected who matched on a sociodemographic profile. Analysis of the data identified three broad themes: Opportunities and Security, Life as Migrant and Survival on Migration. These themes answered the central research question of this study and demonstrated that lack of income generating opportunities has been the motive behind the participants’ willingness to return to cities.