Marriage was the primary reason women in the country migrated, according to migration data released by the 2011 Census. While this information is currently eight years old — out of a total 309,641,654 women migrants, a whopping 205,839,698 women migrated because of marriage — close to two-thirds. A little over 6 million women moved for employment, and 2 million for education. Out of the total number of people who migrated for marriage, 97% were women.
However, when it comes to migration trends in the south Indian states, Bengaluru had a high share of migrants as a part of its total population. A total of 44,29,433 people migrated to Bengaluru according to the 2011 census, with the highest number of people moving for employment. This, at a time when Bengaluru’s population was 8,495,492.
Many migrants in the south Indian states either moved intra-state or to other south Indian cities. This data, however, may be quite outdated as this data collected in 2011, while we are closer to the 2021 Census. Major changes have taken place since the 2011 Census — Andhra Pradesh has since split into Telangana and Andhra. The data below looks at erstwhile Andhra.
Migration for work
Migration inside Andhra Pradesh for work was largely intra-state, with 8,29,361 people from rural Andhra and 5,34,938 from urban Andhra migrating for work within the state. Migrants from outside the state stood at 73,430 for rural Andhra and 73,307 for urban Andhra.
Similarly, for Tamil Nadu, 7,37,370 migrants from urban TN and 631,911 from rural TN were from within the state. This, as opposed to 47,914 rural and 87,705 urban migrants from outside the state.
Kerala had 1,61,773 rural migrants and 67,688 urban migrants from within the state. Migrants from outside Kerala stood at 60,948 for rural and 35,409 for urban.
Karnataka saw a significant gap between its intra-state and inter-state migrants, with 6,03,816 rural and 4,21,517 urban migrants just intrastate. Migrants from outside the state stood at a distant 1,88,080 for rural and 275,582 for urban areas.
Migration from major cities
Within the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits of Bengaluru — 44,29,433 people were migrants, with the highest number of people moving for employment. Hyderabad city — comprising areas under the Secunderabad Cantonment Board and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation — saw 1,32,080 and 35,117 migrants respectively. However, it is plausible that these figures have changed significantly due to inflow of investment and with Hyderabad becoming the capital of a new state.
Chennai municipal corporation limits, on the other hand, had 1,370,604 migrants — with the most from Kerala and Karnataka.
Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation limits saw 3,19,794 migrants, with the highest number of migrants from Tamil Nadu — at a little over 20,000. Meanwhile, 84,690 of the total number of migrants were from outside India.
Overall migration in south India
The highest number of migrants in south India was registered in Andhra Pradesh, which had a total of 38,360,644 migrants, with most of them coming from Karnataka at 4,66,951. Karnataka saw 26,463,170 migrants, with most from Andhra and Tamil Nadu. Kerala saw 17,863,419 migrants, with most migrants from TN at 3,11,347. Tamil Nadu saw 31,274,107 migrants, with most migrants from Kerala at 447,701.