Why Do They Want to Migrate from Rural Areas? A Psychological Perspective from Iran

While migration is a basic element of population dynamics in most societies, in Iran, rural-urban migration is a particular concern of both social scientists and policy makers. Rural-urban migration accounts for over half of the growth of most Iranian cities. On the other hand, this movement is often cited as having negative effects on rural area, including a shortage of supply of agricultural labor. It is becoming common to blame rural-urban migration among young people on factors such as education and employment opportunities. This research examines the psychological factors influencing the intentions and decisions of rural young people aiming to migrate to Khuzestan Province. This study used the extend theory of planned behaviour. A questionnaire was developed using the latent variables of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, behavioural intention, community satisfaction, and youth personal characteristics. The face and content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts. The questionnaire’s internal reliability was investigated using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. All scales indicated a good-to excellent reliability index (0.75–0.85). Samples of young people were identified through a multi-stage, stratified random sampling strategy from two groups (young people who are ‘well educated’ and those who were not). A total of 163 valid questionnaires were analyzed. Our results showed that adding community satisfaction as additional construct to the original theory of planned behavior could significantly increase the explanatory power of the basic model. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that attitude, perceived behaviour control, as well as community satisfaction can predict 51.3% of variances in migration intentions.

Iran, intention to migration, Theory of Planned Behaviour, youth migration