The phenomenon of rural to urban migration more as anrnincidence of rural pushed ' type and comparatively much lessrnof urban ' pulled' types has became a ' problematic f act orrnleading to unhealthy imbalances in population distribution,rnlocally, regionally and nationally, and affecting therndevelopment of both rural and urban areas, in some developingrncountries in particular.rnin-migrants of Arba MinchrnAs such, the present study of thernis aimed to f ind out t he majorrncauses and the consequences of the flow of people from ruralrnareas in particular, with a view t o provide a researched framernfor policy planning in the area.rnIn order to find out the problems, 725 household headsrnwere selected randomly from seven sample kebeles of the t own.rnstructured interview questionnaires were prepared. Thernquestionnairesrnincorporatingrnare multi- dimensionalrndemographic, socio-economic,rnoccupational conditions of the respondents.rnin structure,rnculture andrnHowever, thernentire part of the questionnaire i s mainly centered around therncauses and consequences of migration to Arba Minch.rn/ There are many causes for the movement of people fromrnrural areas to towns. Among them, the findings in relation t ornArba Minch indicate that, the search for r~~~ner~ive incomernin the town, unemploymentratr' and the per capita land shortagernin some regions or woredas are the most significant andrnexplici t 'pushing' factors of migrants from rural .ar-eas.rnÂ· , .rn'/ Thus, the study finds tha t economic differentials as evidencedrnby the urban centres are the necessary conditions but not byrnthemselves sufficient to 'pull'; which the rate of migrationrnis determined mainly by economic factors, the incidence ofrnmigration depends on the ' push ' factors of the rural ' areas. ~rnThis can be generalized that, the income differential, actualrnor perceived between rural and urban areas is the core of thernreasons for migration. other factors such as ' search forrnbetter educational and health facilities or urban amenities'rnseem to be less explicit or sharper and at least lessrn'activating' factors. However, to lead an urban life is arngreat 'wish' , especially for some youths, but they are hardlyrneducated or skilled for taking up real 'urban' jobs orrninvertible resources to start their own. The life opportunityrngoals therefore may not be attained.rn~ The consequences of migration on both areas of departurernand destination are also points of focus in this regard.rnThough, detail assessment of the background of the rural areasrnis not taken into account , it is found that as a whole ,rnmi gration does not relieve the rural areas of ' populaion 'rnburden; r ather, they impinge several negaj!'tive consequences onrnthe villages/ families. The relatives and famil i es the youngrnmigrants leave such as women folk, children and the aged, arernless efficient. Hence, the out-flow of productive age grouprnfrom rural agricultural sector has a negative effect onrnproduction.rnTherefore, the remedies to mitigate the problem lie onrnthe launching of integrated rural development policy. ,