Analysis of social linkages in population movement and its underlying factors over the past decades in West Azarbaijan Province, Iran

Intro duction Internal migration between regions is an important social process in many countries which reflects the reaction of people against the economic, social and regional inequalities in many aspects of the life. Intense migration started approximately 300 years ago in European societies; however, in developing countries it has been begun since 1960(Lucas, 1381: 156-163). The d ominant form of migrations in developing nations in past years has mainly been rural -urban which has led to the rapid expansion of cities. The outcome has mainly been problems such as deprived rural areas, over crowded cities, poor social services, increasing crimes, low quality of environment, lack of sanitation and shortage of safe drinking water, (Sheikhi, 1380, 107). As one of the important social issues in Iran, migration and its consequences have posed serious challenges for administrative managers during the recent decades. The main objective of this study is to investigate the characteristics of migration in West Azarbaijan Province (WAP) of Iran. The research method is mainly descriptive and several statistical measures have been used to analyze the data. Most data employed in the study comes from official records. In addition to the analysis of net migration over the last three decades, the major population links of the WAP with other provinces as well as the underlying factors of urban and rural migrations have been discussed.