Exit as Disengagement: The Political Implications of Economic Migration in Rural India

Abstract

Millions of households across the developing world rely on migration to navigate economic uncertainty. While a substantial body of research has documented the economic and welfare implications of these labor flows for origin communities, their political consequences have received little attention. This dissertation examines how migration shapes citizen-state relations and political accountability in left-behind communities. It argues that access to private self-insurance mechanisms, such as temporary migration, can weaken political engagement and undermine democratic governance in out-migration areas. I illustrate this argument in India, the world's largest democracy, home to an estimated 100 million internal economic migrants. To do so, I first conduct a difference-in-differences analysis of nationally representative panel data to establish that household migration reduces claim-making over the state. Next, I corroborate these findings using original survey data from a high-migration corridor, demonstrating that members of migrant households are systematically less likely to vote or participate in political protest compared to non-migrant households. Using village-level panel data, I further show that local governments underperform in areas experiencing greater outmigration. The evidence is consistent with migration substituting for social services provided by the state and weakening collective pressures on elected officials to be accountable to local electorates. These findings have significant implications for democracy and development in low- and middle-income countries.