Migration and Family: A Sociological Study of an Industrial Setting

This is an exploratory study done in an Industrial setting of Lucknow city. The study tells about the family issues of the migrants working in the city, something beyond the economic issues. This chapter explores how the structure and function of Indian Joint family system has been challenged and marginalized because of difference in city life. The significance of the chapter lies in its methodological objectivity to evaluate how the internal migration is an underlining and undermining issue of family. Really it is a matter of concern and introspection for the policy makers and social scientists. It brings out a proposition that migration though lead to economic gains but at the same time there are different social pains come on the way of a migrant. The early anthropological research on migration which tended to understand migration as an external force and which would inevitably lead to the breakdown of local culture. The study like migration is cause of agricultural decay; detribalization and break down of joint family are being criticized by Gardner. Migration in some ways causing radical change and readjustment, in others often does not lead to great structural change, or the breakdown of traditional forms, especially in cases where migrants have the money to maintain them. Indeed it is often in their interests to invest in the reconstruction of traditional structures. So it is the type of migration that really would determine the consequences of migration, whether it breaks the local culture and institutions or it builds those.