Sedigheh Aminian - Department of Sociology, Azadshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Azadshahr, Iran

This paper has investigated the effect of social factors on development with special emphasis on immigration in the city of Gorgan. The factors being studied are the level of education, the type of job, and quality of housing between two groups of emigrant and native.This study has been conducted using the documentary research method; the survey research method; the stratified and disproportionate sampling, and random sampling done by means of Cochran Formula by choosing a sample of 400 people, and using a semi_ standardized questionnaire to be filled up by the head of the families in Gorgan.The findings of the survey indicate that:There are significant differences between the means of immigrant and native groups in T- test.There is a meaningful correlation between migration and the level of education (r= - 0.423), the kind of job (r= - 0.337), and the housing quality(r= - 0.271) which are the sub hypotheses for measuring the related variable of this research.The macro hypothesis of research, the relationship between the migration and social development of the city of Gorgan, has been approved with a high meaningful correlation coefficient (r=+0.440).The obtained Chi-square in regression analysis of these two variables shows that R2 = +0.182, so it can be concluded that immigration explains 18.2 percent of the changes of the correlated variable i.e., development.And finally, some suggestions and solutions have been presented in order to control migration and increase development.

Development, Social Development, Immigration