Why do large cities tend to attract more migrants than smaller towns? Discuss in the light of conditions in developing countries…

In developing countries like India, rapid urbanisation is characterized by unbalanced spatial growth, where large metropolitan areas attract a disproportionate share of migrants compared to smaller towns.

Economic Drivers and Agglomeration: Large cities generate powerful agglomeration economies, concentrated markets, and deep informal sector absorption capacity (e.g., Mumbai’s Dharavi, Delhi’s unorganized hubs), offering diversified employment and higher wages unavailable in smaller towns. As the Harris–Todaro model explains, migrants respond to expected rather than actual income, so even high urban unemployment does not deter them. Census 2011 counted about 45.4 crore internal migrants in India.

Rural Push and Infrastructure Asymmetry: Severe agrarian distress, land fragmentation, disguised unemployment, and climate vulnerability push rural workers outward. Migrants bypass smaller towns due to stark disparities in tertiary healthcare, higher education, reliable utilities, and transport infrastructure.

Social Networks and Policy Gaps: Well-established migrant clusters enable chain migration, significantly lowering information costs and settlement risks. Conversely, historical policy and governance gaps leave Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns starved of industrial corridors and planned capital investments compared to mega-cities.

Mitigating hyper-congestion in mega-cities requires balanced regional development, strengthening smaller towns as counter-magnets through targeted investments under schemes like AMRUT 2.0 and industrial-corridor nodes.