Department of Migration & Urban Studies

The research and teaching in the field of migration and urbanization is one of the core areas of IIPS since the inception of the department in 1956. In the first decade after the Institute was established, migration and urban studies focused on India and South East Asia, including Japan. In this decade, two pioneering studies, namely ‘Historical Study of Internal Migration in the Indian Subcontinent’ and ‘Migrants in Greater Mumbai,’ were published. In the subsequent decades until 2000, the Department had undertaken many studies vindicating the role of urbanization in shaping regional development as well as linkages between migration and poverty. At the beginning of the new millennium, the department widened its horizon and scope of research and teaching, including migration and gender, migration and health, and urbanization and environment. The department undertook region-specific migration studies and conducted large-scale surveys on international out-migration from the state of Gujarat as well as causes and consequences of internal migration in Bihar. The courses provided by the department include, ‘Migration and Urbanisation,’ ‘Migration, Spatial Distribution, and Urbanisation,’ ‘Spatial Demography,’ and ‘Urbanisation, Space, and Planning’ through various Master’s Degree Programmes at the Institute. The department has five full-time faculty members, with two professors, an associate professor, and two assistant professors. More than a dozen Ph.D. students, who are working on various aspects of migration and urbanization and their linkages with health and development, are currently being guided by the department faculty members.

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