Investigating the Migration Situation in Rural Areas of Border Cities of Iran

One of the challenges of today's Iranian society is the indiscriminate emigration of low-density areas and local communities, which endangers the future stability of the entire territory. The purpose of this article is to investigate the situation of migration in rural border areas of border cities of Iran and the factors affecting this migration in 2006-2010. The research method is documentary and based on the secondary analysis of data from general population and housing censuses and other findings related to the subject under study. The findings show that in this period, about 9% of the country's population live in villages in the border areas of the country. The lowest immigration rate is for the rural areas of Dasht-e Azadegan, Shadegan and Sib-o-Soran, and the highest is for the rural areas of Abu Musa, Bushehr and Kangan. The lowest migration rate is for rural areas of Miankangi (Helmand) and Mehrestan (Zaboli) cities in Sistan and Baluchistan province, Miandorod in Mazandaran province, and the highest emigration rate is for rural areas of Bushehr, Abu Musa and Qasr Shirin counties. About 44% of the rural areas of the border cities had immigrants (net negative immigration); in contrast, 56% of these areas had migrants (net positive immigration). In rural areas of border cities, the highest average unemployment rate is for the provinces of Sistan and Baluchistan, Khuzestan, Kermanshah and Ilam, and the lowest average is for the provinces of East Azerbaijan, South Khorasan and North Khorasan. The reasons for high emigration in rural areas of border provinces include high unemployment in rural areas, unfavorable climate, limited access to basic living facilities such as education and health facilities, lack of border economic benefits for the people, and so on. The results of this study show that the border villages of the country, especially in the land / land borders are suffering from population loss. These conditions are especially evident in the rural areas of the southeast as well as the west and northwest of the country. One of the reasons for such a situation is related to regional inequalities and underdevelopment in these areas, because the border provinces of the country are among the provinces with less developed and medium development.