No going back: COVID-19 disease threat perception and male migrants' willingness to return to work in India.

ABSTRACT: This paper explores the causal link between the likelihood of re-migration to cities and the perceived threat of contracting COVID-19 using novel data on male reverse migrant workers in India. We find that reverse-migrants who believe there is a significant chance of contracting COVID-19 display a significantly lower likelihood of returning to their urban workplaces, regardless of their duration of migration. On the other hand, longer-duration migrants display a lower perceived chance of contracting COVID-19 than shorter-duration migrants. We also contribute to the migration literature by linking behavioural attributes to the decision to migrate. We find that more impatient individuals display a heightened belief regarding contracting COVID-19 and a higher projected likelihood of returning

SUBMITTER: Arora V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10040349 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature