Editing Rural flight (section)

== Reasons for leaving ==
As with other [[human migration]], various push and pull factors contribute to rural flight: lower levels of (perceived) economic opportunity in rural communities versus urban ones, lower levels of government investment in rural communities, greater education opportunities in cities, marriages, increased social acceptance in urban areas, and higher levels of rural fertility.

=== Economic motives ===
Some migrants choose to leave rural communities to pursue economic opportunity in urban areas.  Greater economic opportunities can be real or perceived.  According to the [[Harris-Todaro Model]], migration to urban areas will continue as long as "expected urban real income at the margin exceeds real agricultural product" (127).<ref>{{cite web|last=Harris|first=John|title=Migration, Unemployment and Development: A Two-Sector Analysis|url=http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1222150.files/Session%2018/harris_todaro70.pdf|publisher=American Economic Association|access-date=13 March 2014}}</ref>  However, sociologist Josef Gugler points out that while individual benefits of increased wages may outweigh the costs of migration,  if enough individuals follow this rationale, it can produce harmful effects such as overcrowding and unemployment on a national level.<ref name="Gugler">Gugler, Josef. "Overurbanization Reconsidered." ''Economic Development and Cultural Change'' 31, no. 1 (1 October 1982): 173–89.</ref>  This phenomenon, when the rate of urbanization outpaces the rate of economic growth, is known as [[overurbanization]].<ref name="Davis">Davis, Kingsley, and Hilda Hertz Golden. "Urbanization and the Development of Pre-Industrial Areas." Economic Development and Cultural Change 3, no. 1 (October 1954): 6–26.</ref>  With the rise of [[industrial agriculture]], mechanization has reduced the number of jobs in rural communities. 

Some scholars have also attributed rural flight to the effects of globalization as the demand for increased economic competitiveness leads people to choose capital over labor.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Perz|first=Stephen|title=The Rural Exodus in the Context of Economic Crisis, Globalization, and Reform in Brazil|journal=The International Migration Review|volume=34|issue=3|pages=842–881|jstor=2675947|year=2000|doi=10.1177/019791830003400308|s2cid=220350452}}</ref> At the same time, rural fertility rates have historically been higher than urban fertility rates.<ref name="Weeks" /> The combination of declining rural jobs and a persistently high rural fertility rate has led to rural-urban migration streams. Rural flight also contains a positive feedback loop where previous migrants from rural communities assist new migrants in adjusting to city life. Also known as [[chain migration]], migrant networks lower barriers to rural flight. For example, an overwhelming majority of rural migrants in China located jobs in urban areas through migrant networks.<ref>{{cite web|title=China Human Development Report 2005: Development with Equity|publisher=UNDP |url=https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/migration/cn/UNDP-CH-HD-Publication-HDR-2005.pdf}}</ref>

Some families choose to send their children to cities as a form of investment for the future. A study conducted by Bates and Bennett (1974) concluded that rural communities in Zambia that had other viable investment opportunities, like livestock for instance, had lower rates of rural-urban migration as compared to regions without viable investment opportunities. Sending their children into cities can serve as long-term investments with the hope that their children will be able to send remittances back home after getting a job in the city.<ref name="Zambia">{{Cite journal|last=Bates|first=Robert|title=Determinants of the Rural Exodus in Zambia|journal=Cahiers d'Études Africaines|volume=14|issue=55|pages=543–564|jstor=4391333|year=1974|doi=10.3406/cea.1974.2636|url=https://authors.library.caltech.edu/82866/1/sswp22.pdf}}</ref>

Poorer people face severe challenges in the agricultural sector because of diminishing access to productive farmland. Foreign investors through [[Foreign direct investment|Foreign Direct Investment]] (FDI) schemes have been encouraged to lease land in rural areas in [[Cambodia]] and [[Ethiopia]]. This has led to the loss of farmland, range land, woodlands and water sources from local communities. Large-scale agricultural projects funded by FDI only employed a few experts specialized in the relevant new technologies.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002457/245765e.pdf|title=Learning knowledge and skills for agriculture to improve rural livelihoods|last=Robinson-Pant|first=Anna|publisher=UNESCO|year=2016|isbn=978-92-3-100169-7|pages=90–91}}</ref>

===Social motives===
In other instances, rural flight may occur in response to social determinants. A study conducted in 2012 indicated that a significant proportion of rural flight in India occurred due to social factors such as migration with household, marriage, and education. Migration with households and marriage affect women in particular as most often they are the ones required to move with households and move for marriage, especially in developing regions.<ref name="India">{{cite journal|last=Hassan|first=Tarique|author2=Khan, Jabir |title=Determinants of Rural Out-Migration in India|journal=International Journal of Advanced Research in Management and Social Sciences|date=December 2012|volume=1|issue=12|url=https://www.academia.edu/5450848|access-date=13 March 2014}}</ref> 
	
Rural youth may choose to leave their rural communities as a method of transitioning into adulthood, seeking avenues to greater prosperity. With the stagnation of the [[rural economics|rural economy]] and encouragement from their parents, rural youth may choose to migrate to cities out of social norms – demonstrating leadership and self-respect.<ref name="Youth">{{cite web|last=Min-Harris|first=C.|title=Youth migration and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: Empowering the Rural Youth|url=http://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/researchdigest/africa/YouthMigration.pdf|publisher=Disponible en ligne dans le site|access-date=13 March 2014}}</ref> With this societal encouragement combined with depressed rural economies, rural youth form a large proportion of the migrants moving to urban areas. In Sub-Saharan Africa, a study conducted by Touray in 2006 indicated that about 15% (26 million) of urban migrants were youth. 
	
Lastly, natural disasters can often be single-point events that lead to temporarily massive rural-urban migration flows. The 1930s Dust Bowl in the United States, for example, led to the flight of 2.5 million people from the Plains by 1940, many to the new cities in the West. It is estimated that as many as one out of every four residents in the Plains States left during the 1930s.<ref name="DustBowlPBS">{{cite web|title=Mass Exodus from the Plains|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/dustbowl-mass-exodus-plains/|publisher=PBS|access-date=13 March 2014}}</ref> More recently, drought in Syria from 2006 to 2011 has prompted a rural exodus to major urban centers. Massive influxes in urban areas, combined with difficult living conditions, have prompted some scholars to link the drought to the arrival of the [[Arab Spring]] in Syria.<ref name="Syria">{{cite news|last=Aukalh|first=R.|title=A rural exodus as drought takes hold of Syria|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/03/16/a_rural_exodus_as_drought_takes_hold_of_syria.html|access-date=13 March 2014|newspaper=Toronto Star|date=16 March 2013}}</ref>