The Impacts of Intra-household Factors on the Migration of Marand County Rural Household Members to Cities

The present research has studied 557 sample households aiming to identify the relationships between intra-household contextual variables (migrant and head of household characteristics) and their roles on the migration of rural household members to cities in 32 villages of Marand county. The results of multivariate logistic regression indicated that in this research three variables with high level of significance were among the strongest factors that influence this phenomenon: sex (being male) of the migrant, unemployment of the head of households, and diversified income sources. The lowest migration due to economic and non economic reasons happened where the head of household was a woman. In migration due to economic reasons, landlessness of rural households and the number of the dependents in the household without considering their personal characteristics were respectively among the strongest determinants of migration which were statistically significant. Generally it can be concluded that unemployment and the possibility to find work in cities and personal characteristics such as education, or technical skill were not the main reasons, but in addition, a set of general conditions of rural underdevelopment, and the lack of life attractions in villages under study were the main reasons for migration.