Editing Rural flight (section)

=== 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>