Migration in India is not new and historical accounts show that people have moved in search of work, in response to environmental shocks and stresses, to escape religious persecution and political conflict. However improved communications, transport networks, conflicts over natural resources and new economic opportunities have created unprecedented levels of mobility.
Although significant in recent years, growth has been unequal in India (Balisacan and Ducanes 2005), characterized by industry in developed states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Punjab drawing labour from agriculturally backward and poor regions such as eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, southern Madhya Pradesh, western Orissa and southern Rajasthan. High productivity agricultural
The total number of interstate migrants was 42.3 million. Uttar Pradesh (-2.6 million) and Bihar (-1.7 million) were the two states with the largest net outmigration.

The 55th round of NSS of 1999-00 was the first to cover short-duration migration defined as: “persons staying away from usual place of residence for 60 days or more for employment or better employment or in search of employment”. It estimates that roughly 1% of the Indian population or 10 million people migrated temporarily (NSSO 2001). But this is also a gross underestimate because the data do not properly count part-time occupations and short term migrations.

India is a federal country. At the time of the 2011 Census, it comprised 28 states and 7 union territories. A new state of Telangana was created in 2014 from the state of Andhra Pradesh increasing the number to 29. At the state level, there is a marked variation in the level of urbanization. States like Bihar, Assam and Himachal Pradesh are at the bottom of the ranking where the urbanization level is less than 15 per cent compared to the states of Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Maharashtra and Gujarat where the urbanization level, ranging from 37 per cent in Punjab to 48 per cent in Tamil Nadu, is much higher than the national average. These highly urbanized states show a higher level of per capita income and also a higher level of in-migration