Migration and Urbanisation Flashcards
define ‘internal migration’
migration within a country
internal migration often unrecorded because…
doesn’t require documentation
urbanisation measured by…
% of nations population living in towns and cities
demographic change since 1900
% of population living in towns/cities doubled between 1900 and 1950, then more than doubled again between 1950 and 2007
benefits of migration
spatial externalities
- skilled labour pool
- information spillovers
- increasing returns to scale
- transport costs
concerns of migration
1988 UN report asked about spatial distribution of population
- 73/158 governments considered ‘highly unacceptable’
- 66 considered it ‘unacceptable to a degree’
- 90/116 countries had policies to slow migration
problems of migration
- urban unemployment
- external diseconomies
- congestion and pollution
- 1/3 urban population live in slums
- lack of clean water, sanitation and electricity
- services overload
- social issues such as crime
example of services overload
cairo population 10,000,000 but water and sanitation system designed for 2,000,000
2 theories concerning role played by rural-to-urban migration for growth
1) arthur lewis’ ‘surplus labour’ approach
- sees migration as benign phenomenon, with rural-urban wage differentials attracting labour supply to urban areas for industrialisation
2) todaro’s model
- links migration flows into urban areas to both rural-urban wage differentials and urban-unemployment rates
describe lewis model
- rural-urban migration and urbanisation seen as important part of solution to development problem
- seemed sensible to warn policy makers to avoid measures that might hinder inflow of labour to towns and cities
describe todaro model
- suggested migration would create serious problem of persistent, probably growing, urban unemployment
- led to policy conclusion that priority should be given to discouraging rural-urban migration
- would avoid towns becoming centres of heavy, chronic unemployment and associated social malaise
