Rural Labor in Transition: Structural Change, Migration and Governance

IAMO Forum 2016
22 - 24 June 2016 | Halle (Saale), Germany

+++ Please, click here for the summarizing Press Release on the IAMO Forum 2016. +++

The relevance of agriculture in formal employment dropped in many European, Central and East Asian countries over the previous decades. The mutually reinforcing and interdependent processes of non-agricultural sector development and urbanization have resulted in new dynamics and diversity in rural labour landscape. Remittances as the link between urban and international migrants and their original households have gained importance in sustaining rural livelihoods, especially in poorer countries and regions. Yet, in a number of countries agricultural activities still fulfil important safety net functions. However, a potential lack of qualified agricultural labour and increasing wages, as observed in some places, will constrain future prospects of the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. These phenomena are not fully understood in terms of their functioning and poverty and sustainability outcomes.

The IAMO Forum 2016 placed the interlinkages between people’s mobility across localities, countries, sectors and types of employment as well as local economic development in the focus. The drivers and consequences were debated from a social sciences perspective, including economics, political sciences, sociology, anthropology and history. Regional focus was on Europe, Central Asia and China.

The conference was jointly organized with the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).