On 3 April 2019, PhD researcher Amrita Datta will defend her thesis entitled 'Continuity and Change: Migration and Development in India. The case of Bihar'.
Amrita Datta's research counters dominant academic and policy discourses of low internal migration in India. Drawing on long-term empirical data in a source region, her research finds evidence of high and increasing mobility from the eastern Indian state of Bihar in the period 1998 –2011. This rise in the incidence of migration from rural Bihar is accompanied by a change in its determinants.
Over time, individual factors have become more important in explaining migration. At the same time, there is evidence of increased propensity to migrate among the agricultural labouring class. Amrita Datta suggests that these changing determinants of migration from rural Bihar may be understood as a response to rising labour demand in distant urban markets elsewhere in India.
Chair
Doctoral dissertation supervisor
Co-supervisor
Dr Arjan de Haan, International Development Research Centre, Canada
Members of the Full Doctoral Committee
Professor Irudaya Rajan, Centre for Development Studies, India
Dr Priya Deshingkar, University of Sussex
Dr Ajay Bailey, Utrecht University
The ceremony will be followed by a reception in the Atrium of the ISS. Professors are invited to join the academic procession.
- More information
Children under 7 years old are not allowed in the Aula during the first part of the ceremony.
This Public Defence may broadcast on ISS livestream. If so, you will be able to watch the Public Defence live at www.iss.nl/live and later on at the ISS YouTube channel.