Various factors are related in internal migration of indigenous peoples from their ancestral places, that is hill, to the plain areas. This article aims to find out the pull and push factors of the indigenous migration. The study has been conducted in Chittagong Export Processing Zone at Chittagong, Bangladesh. The major finding of the study is that indigenous peoples are greatly migrated to plain places for economic reason voluntarily. It also indicates that among 14 indigenous groups living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), mainly Chakma people have been migrated in large volume. It finds that women are clearly ahead than their counterparts in migrating to the plain areas. The migrant’s traditional culture and customs are greatly affected after their migration which is highlighted in this paper.
From ancient period, migration has been considered as an important phenomenon around the world. In human history, people have been moving from one area to another for various causes. It is often defined as a form of geographical or spatial mobility, which involves a change of usual residence of a person between clearly defined geographical units (Gautam, 2005: 1) . When a person or group of person move from one area to another can be called migration in geographical perspectives. According to International migration report 2002, it has been estimated that around 175 million people currently reside in a country other than where they were born, equivalent to around 3 percent of the world population (Giddens, 2006) . In twenty-first century, mainly because of rapid globalization and industrialization, people are moving within inland and cross own state sovereign border more easily than ever. In the period of “age of migration” the marginalized peoples of a country, like ethno-religious minority, tribal and indigenous peoples had also been influenced to migrate for various political and economic causes. This article tries to concentrate on internal migration of indigenous peoples1 from Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT)2 to plain3 districts in Bangladesh. The CHT has its distinct character and it is around one-tenth of Bangladesh. It has distinct character not only for its hilly landscape but also for ethnicity and culture of its 14 different indigenous ethnic groups. In recent years internal migration of indigenous peoples from the CHT to plain areas, especially to the industrialized areas, has been significant. Historically the migration of these peoples has been occurred in four different phases:
A. Societal
B. Developmental
C. Communal
D. Political
It has been noticed in the first phase of indigenous peoples internal migration to plain areas that the CHT people has developed their own cultivation system which is widely known as “Jum”4 cultivation or shifting/Sweden cultivation. Movement in household level from hill to hill searching cultivable hilly land for Jum cultivation was a historical and societal part of indigenous migration. They were migratory in culture because of this cultivation system.
In the second phase the indigenous peoples have been in developmental paradox. It was development for underdevelopment. Indigenous peoples have been forcefully migrated due to state governed developmental project. During Pakistan period, basically in 1960s, government built the Captai hydro-electric dam on Karnafully River which flooded 1036 sq. km of lands and submerged 54% (54000 acres) of the arable land and displaced about 100,000 indigenous peoples from their ancestral land (Chakma, 2009) . Due to the project about 40,000 indigenous peoples were forced to migrate into India and 20,000 into Myanmar but a significant portion of indigenous peoples migrated to other hill areas of the CHT (PCJSS, 2013) .
In the communal phase, large amounts of Bangali were settled into the CHT that caused forced indigenous migration internally. In the period of 1951-1960 Pakistan government settled 93,000 of Bangali into CHT and begun to grab the ancestral land of indigenous peoples that caused internal migration of indigenous peoples within the CHT in different region. In Bangladesh period, from 1979 to 1984, Zia govt. began state sponsored migration of Bangali into the CHT by declaring that each Bangali settler family would be given 7.5 acres of land. In that period 400,000 Bangali Muslim from different plain districts were settled over the indigenous land (Mohsin, 1997) . As no cultivable land was vacant for settlement, these settlers eventually grabbed the ancestral land of indigenous peoples. A large number of indigenous peoples mainly migrated to Arunachal, Mizoram and other states of India and many were displaced within CHT. In this phase they hardly thought of migrating to plain areas (Chowdhury & Chakma, 2015) .
In the fourth phase, after signing The CHT Peace Accord in 1997, a historical change was noticed in the trend of indigenous peoples’ internal migration. Depending on state sponsored rehabilitation measure promised by the Bangladesh govt., a large volume of indigenous peoples who were forcefully migrated to India returned to the CHT. Though they didn’t get returned their land as per the CHT accord but the political situation of the CHT became comparatively stable. In this phase indigenous peoples got a suitable time to be institutionally educated. As there were no industrial bases in the CHT area to accommodate the educated and less-educated people, they started migrating to other plain industrialized areas of Bangladesh. Again due to non-implementation of peace accord and presence of vulnerable political situation, a huge number of indigenous people have been migrated to plain areas of Bangladesh.
This paper aims to find out the push and pull factors of indigenous peoples internal migration from the CHT area to plain arena in different phases. Everett Lee’s push-pull factors have been used in analyzing the causes related in the internal migration of indigenous peoples. This study has been conducted to focus on major two objectives. Firstly, to find out the causes of internal migration of indigenous peoples from the CHT and secondly to search the impact on socio-cultural and demographic life of indigenous peoples due to migration. Very few earlier studies on the CHT indigenous peoples focused on indigenous migration in Bangladesh that enriches rationality of this paper.
The study has been conducted in quantitative manner. For collecting data a survey was conducted at Barrister College area in the Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) in Bangladesh. According to local data, the CEPZ, an important industrialized zone in Bangladesh, is the largest host area of migrant indigenous peoples. Around 10,000 indigenous migrants have been found residing at Barrister College area. 250 respondents were selected following random and accidental method. The survey was conducted in the last week of April, 2015 to collect primary data from the study area. The questionnaire of data collection was formulated by both 9 open ended and 78 close ended questions. In this article deductive method was followed and the migration trends of indigenous peoples have been narrated according to Everett Lee’s (1966) push-pull factors. Relevant data have been used from secondary sources including books, journals, little magazine, government and non-government report, websites, articles, newspapers etc.
Respondents have been found came from various socio-economic backgrounds and ethnic minority groups. Considering their ethnic composition, 82.0% of the migrants are from Chakma ethnic group and 10.8% are found from Marma. Migrants from Tripura and Tancangya are not significant. As the data shows, female (52.8%) are found more migrated than their counterparts. Most of the migrants (56.8%) are found migrated from Rangamati hill district and only 9.2% are from Bandarban district. Collected data shows that maximum migrants, both male and female, are young in age. 33.6% of total respondents are in age group (21 - 25). 24% migrants are from 26 - 30 age group and 21.2% are from 19 - 20 age group. 44.8% of migrants passed secondary school and 34.4% higher secondary level. 74.4% of these migrants are garment workers living in this industrial area. 64% of the respondents reported that they have no more than 2 - 3 members in their family. More than half of migrants (53.2%) stated their monthly income around 5001 - 10,000 BDT while 24.8% migrants earn 3001 - 5000 BDT in a month. A few migrants (3.6% only) earn more than 20,000 BDT. 39.6% of total respondents reported that the tenure of their migration is 2 - 3 years. Only 11.2% respondents reported that the tenure of their migration is more than 10 years (see
Various reasons have been found responsible for the internal migration of the indigenous peoples of CHT. These reasons are categorized under push and pull factors. This study has found that the pull factors as well as the push factors are equally responsible for this indigenous internal migration.
The various push factors that the study has identified are the lack of employment opportunities, land grabbing, communal harassment, torture by the law enforcing agencies and the intra-ethnic conflict in the CHT (see
Agricultural sector is one of the most important income sources of the peoples of the CHT. But, the amount of arable land available to the indigenous peoples has decreased because of land grabbing by the security forces, Bengali settlers and government agencies. 19.6% of the total respondents reported that they migrated due to the loss of their arable land. Among them, 42.7% lost 1 - 5 acres while 13.4% lost 6 - 10 acres of land to the land grabbers.
According to the collected data, other reasons of internal migration are communal attack on indigenous peoples, political instability in CHT and intra-ethnic conflicts among indigenous peoples. 14% respondents mi-