Economic Resilience Among Rural‑to‑Urban Migrants in Nepal: The Roles of Income Diversity and Perceived Economic Security

Abstract

Internal migration is high in Nepal especially, rural-to-urban migration is in noticeable rate. There is limited study conducted studying about how rural-to-urban migrants are sustaining economic stability in the country. This study explores the determinants of economic resilience among rural-to-urban migrants in Nepal, through focusing on the effects of income diversity and perception on economic security. Cross-sectional survey data were used in this study.500 participants in this survey were selected through purposive, random sampling method from three metropolitan cities (Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bharatpur). Researcher also created economic resilience index through Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression models were used to test three core hypotheses. The result of this study shows that income diversity has a strong, positive and statistically positive effect on economic resilience ((β = 0.695, p < 0.001). Perception on economic security shows positive, weaker and marginally significant effect on economic resilience (β = 0.124, p = 0.013). Which means perception on economic resilience has its weaker effect for economic resiliency among rural-to-urban migrants. The explanatory power (R² = 0.321) is 32% which exhibits the modest interaction between income diversity and perception on economic security among rural-to-urban migrants in Nepal. Marital status, educational background and average working hours as control variables reveals as supportive variables which are enhancing economic resilience whereas, female migrants show consistently lower economic resilience making gender disparities at urban labour markets of Nepal. Age and duration of stay in urban area exhibits no real significant effect on economic resilience among rural-to-urban migrants. The overall findings reveals that the rural-to-urban migrants with diverse income sources and positive perception has been playing significant role for enhancing economic resilience in Nepal. The livelihood diversification as a foundational adaptive strategy and gender-sensitive policy interventions support the multiple income means, development of skills and financial inclusion for economic stability among rural-to-urban migrants. The contribution of this study has been believed to be on the migration and livelihood resilience literature in South Asian urban context which had integrated the subjective and objective dimensions of resilience which has been understudied and offers equitable development of migrants and provides practical insights for policy implementation in Nepal.

Keywords: Economic Resilience, Income Diversity, Perception of Economic Security, Internal Migration, Rural-To-Urban Migrants