GEOG 102 – Population, Resources, and the Environment

Professor: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue

Topic 5 – Migration and Urbanization

A – Migration Issues
B – Migration Theory
C – Refugees
D – Urbanization
A Migration Issues

■ 1. Types of Migration
• What are the major forms of migration?
■ 2. Selective Migration
• Why migration can be considered as a selective process?
■ 3. Brain Drain
• What is the extent of movements of skilled labor?
1 Types of Migration

■ Emigration and immigration

• Change in residence.
A Problems or • Relative to origin and destination.
benefits? ■ Requires information
Emigrant • People and conditions.
• Two different places.
• Two different times.
■ Duration
• Permanent.
Immigrant • Seasonal / Temporary.
■ Choice / constraint
Problems or • Improve one’s life.
B benefits? • Leave inconvenient / threatening
conditions.
1 Types of Migration

■ Gross migration
Gross migration
• Total number of people coming in
and out of an area.
• Level of population turnover.
Immigration
■ Net Migration
Emigration • Difference between immigration (in-
migration) and emigration (out-
migration).
• Positive value:
• More people coming in.
• Population growth.
– 44% of North America and 88% of
Europe.
• Negative value:
• More people coming out.
• Population decline.
Net migration
1 Annual Net International Migration by Continent,
1990-95

Oceania

North America

Latin America and

Carribean

Europe

Asia

Africa

-1500 -1000 -500 0 500 1000

1 Net Migration, 2000-05

3,000

Net Migration (1,000s)

NA
Negative net migration
Positive net migration
1 Types of Migration

■ International Migration
• Emigration is an indicator of economic and/or social failures of a
society.
• Crossing of a national boundary.
• Easier to control and monitor.
• Laws to control / inhibit these movements.
• Between 2 million and 3 million people emigrate each year.
• Between 1965 and 2000, 175 million people have migrated:
• 3% of the global population.
1 Migration Policies and Global Migration Patterns

Period Policies Pattern

Before 1914 Open policies (“showing up”). From developed (Europe) to developing
Immigration as a source of labor and countries (Americas, Africa, Australia).
development. Immigration from Europe between 1880
and 1910 was exceeded 25 million.
1920s and “Closed door” linked with the Limited migration.
1930s economic depression. Deportation of
immigrants.

After 1945 More open policies. Reconstruction Beginning to shift from developing to
in Europe (12% of labor force) and developed countries (12%).
economic growth in America.

After 1973 Relatively open policies, but with From developing to developed countries
more stringent requirements. Growth (88%). 3 million illegal immigrants
of refugees and illegal immigration. entering the US per year.
1 World Migration Routes Since 1700

European
African (slaves)
Indian
Chinese
Japanese Majority of population descended from immigrants
 Total Slave Population, United States (1790-1860)

4.5
Millions

4.0

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0
1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860
1 Major International Migration Patterns, 1990s

NA
Negative net migration
Positive net migration
1 International Migration: Main Destination Countries,
1997

Immigration, 1997
0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 600,000 700,000 800,000

France

Canada

Britain % Foreign population

Immigration, 1997
Japan

Germany

United States

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
% of foreign population
1 Immigration to the United States, 1820-2003 Latin America
Asia
Southeast
1,400,000 Europe

1,200,000

1,000,000 Germany
Scandinavia

800,000

British
600,000 Isles

400,000

200,000

0
20

28

36

44

52

60

68

76

84

92

00

08
16

24
32

40

48

56

72
80

88

96
64
18

18
18

18

19

19

19

19

19
18

18

18
18

18

18

19

19

19
19

19

19

19

19
1 Region of Birth of the Foreign-Born Population: 1850
to 2000
.

Not Reported
Northern America
Latin America
Africa
Asia
Europe

1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
1 Top 10 Countries of Origin for US Legal Immigrants,
1995-2003
0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000

Mexico

India

Philippines

China, People's Republic

El Salvador

Dominican Republic

Vietnam

Colombia

Guatemala 1995
2000
Russia 2003
1 US Population by Race and Ethnicity, 1990-2050

100% 3.6 6.3 7 9

11.7
12.1 13
14
80% 9
12.5
18
24
60% Asian/Other
Black
Hispanic
40% 75.6 White
69.1
62
53
20%

0%
1990 2000 2025 2050
1 Illegal Aliens in the United States by Country of
Origin, 1990-2000 (in 1,000s)

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000

Mexico
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
China
Ecuador
Dominican Republic
Philippines
Brazil
Haiti
India
Peru
1 Types of Migration

■ Internal Migration
• Within one country.
• Crossing domestic jurisdictional
boundaries.
• Movements between states or
provinces.
• Little government control.
• Factors:
• Employment-based.
• Retirement-based.
• Education-based.
• Civil conflicts (internally
displaced population).
1 Migration by Major Metropolitan Areas in the United
States, 1990-98 (in 1,000s)

-1750 -1250 -750 -250 250 750 1250

New York

Los Angeles

San Francisco

Chicago

Miami

Atlanta

Las Vegas

Phoenix

Immigration Portland
Net domestic migration
Denver
1 Types of Migration

■ Local Migration
• No state boundaries are crossed.
• Buying a new house in the same
town or city.
• Difficult to research since they
are usually missed in census
Central City data.
• Based on change of income or
lifestyle.
• Often very high levels of local
Suburb
migration.
• Americans change residence
every 5 to 7 years.
1 Types of Migration

■ Voluntary migration
• The migrant makes the decision to move.
• Most migration is voluntary.
■ Involuntary
• Forced migration in which the mover has no role in the decision-
making process.
• Slavery:
• About 11 million African slaves were brought to the Americas between
1519 and 1867.
• In 1860, there were close to 4 million slaves in the United States.
• Refugees.
• Military conscription.
• Children of migrants.
• Situations of divorce or separation.
1 Types of Migration

Type Characteristics

International Crossing a boundary; easier to control; regulated;

difference in income; 2-3 million per year.
National Between states or provinces; little control; employment
opportunities; education; retirement.
Local Within a city/region; change of income or lifestyle.

Voluntary The outcome of a choice.

Involuntary The outcome of a constraint.

2 Selective Migration

■ Context
• Many migrations are selective.
• Do not represent a cross section of the source population.
• Differences:
• Age.
• Sex.
• Level of education.
■ Age-specific migrations
• One age group is dominant in a particular migration.
• International migration tends to involve younger people.
• The dominant group is between 25 and 45.
• Studies and retirement are also age-specific migrations.
2 Population Pyramid of Native and Foreign Born
Population, United States, 2000 (in %)

Foreign Born Native

Male Female Age Male Female
85+
80-84
75-79
70-74
65-69
60-64
55-59
50-54
45-49
40-44
35-39
30-34
25-29
20-24
15-19
10-14
5-9
0-4

8 6 4 2 0 2 4 6 8 8 6 4 2 0 2 4 6 8
Percent Percent
2 Selective Migration

■ Sex-specific migrations
• Males:
• Often dominant international migrations.
• Once established, try to bring in a wife.
• Females:
• Often dominate rural to urban migrations.
• Find jobs as domestic help or in new factories.
• Send remittances back home.
• Filipino females 17-30 to Hong Kong and Japan.
• “Mail-order bride”:
• 100,000 – 150,000 women a year advertise themselves for marriage.
• About 10,000 available on the Internet at any time.
• Mainly from Southeast Asia and Russia.
• Come from places in which jobs and educational opportunities for women
are scarce and wages are low.
2 Selective Migration

■ Education-specific migrations
• May characterize some migrations (having or lacking of).
• High level of education attained by most contemporary Asian
immigrants to the USA and Canada.
• Educational differences:
• 21% of all legal immigrants have at least 17 years of education.
• 8% for native-born Americans.
• 20% of all immigrants do not have 9 years of schooling.
• Foreign students:
• Often do not return to their home countries after their education.
• Often cannot utilize what they have learned.
• Since 1978 some 130,000 Chinese overseas students have returned
while some 250,000 have remained abroad.
• Most research-oriented graduate institutions have around 40% foreign
students.
2 Selective Migration

■ Immigration and jobs

• Related to the economic sector.
• High level:
• Filling high skilled position in science, technology and education.
• Not enough highly trained personnel in the US.
• Result in recruiting abroad (see brain drain).
• Low level:
• Filling low paid jobs (minimum wage) that most people do not want
(agriculture and low level services).
• Maintain low wages in low skilled jobs.
• Possibility of an informal economy.
3 Brain Drain

■ Definition
• Relates to educationally specific selective migrations.
• Some countries are losing the most educated segment of their
population.
• Can be both a benefit for the receiving country and a problem to
the country of origin.
■ Receiving country
• Getting highly qualified labor contributing to the economy right
away.
• Promotes economic growth in strategic sectors: science and
technology.
• Not having to pay education and health costs.
• 30% of Mexicans with a PhD are in the US.
3 Brain Drain

■ Country of origin
• Education and health costs not paid back.
• Losing potential leaders and talent:
• Between 15 and 40% of a graduating class in Canada will move to the
US.
• Long term impact on economic growth.
• Possibility of remittances.
• Many brain drain migrants have skills which they can’t use at
home:
• The resources and technology may not be available there.
• The specific labor market is not big enough.
• May eventually come back with skills and connections:
• Korea, Taiwan, China and India.
3 Non US Citizens with Science and Engineering
Doctorates in the United States, 1999

China
India
United Kingdom
Canada
Germany
Korea
Japan
Italy
France
Australia
Netherlands
Greece
Turkey
Poland

0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000

3 Likelihood of the Well-Educated to Stay, 1998

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

United States

Germany

Japan

Mexico

France

Canada

China

Sweden

India

Russia 10 = most likely

 Percentage of College Educated Citizens Living
Abroad

Sri Lanka
El Salvador
Somalia
Angola
Uganda
Laos
Kenya
Mozambique
Ghana
Haiti

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
3 H-1B Work Visas by Major Occupation, 1999-2000

19%

Computer-related
3% Egineering
4% Education
53% Medecine & Health
Managers
8% Other

13%
3 H-1B Work Visas by Level of Education, 1999-2000

2% 3%
8%

Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Doctorate Degree
56% Professional Degree
31% Other
B Migration Theory

■ 1. Push - Pull Theory

• What are the major “push” and “pull” factors behind migration?
■ 2. Economic Approaches
• How can migration be explained from an economic perspective?
■ 3. Behavioral Explanations to Migration
• How can migration be explained from a human behavior
perspective?
1 Push - Pull Theory

■ Context
• Migrations as the response of individual decision-makers.
• Negative or push factors in his current area of residence:
• High unemployment and little opportunity.
• Great poverty.
• High crime.
• Repression or a recent disaster (e.g., drought or earthquake).
• Positive or pull factors in the potential destination:
• High job availability and higher wages.
• More exciting lifestyle.
• Political freedom, greater safety and security, etc.
1 Push - Pull Theory

■ Intervening obstacles
• Migration costs / transportation.
• Immigration laws and policies of the destination country.
■ The problem of perception
• Assumes rational behavior on the part of the migrant:
• Not necessarily true since a migrant cannot be truly informed.
• The key word is perception of the pull factors.
• Information is never complete.
• Decisions are made based upon perceptions of reality at the destination
relative to the known reality at the source.
• When the migrant’s information is highly inaccurate, a return
migration may be one possible outcome.
1 Push - Pull Theory

Intervening obstacles

Origin Destination

Positive factors
Neutral factors
Negative factors
1 Push-Pull Factors for Chinese Students Deciding to
Say in the United States, 1997

Chinese Push Factors US Pull Factors

13%
19% 16% 11%
28%
3%
7% 1%
8% 20%

14%
11%
13%
Political instability
Lack of academic freedom
Improve learning
Lower standards of living
Complicated human relations
Crowding and pollution
Other
36%
Academic freedom
Job opportunities
High standards of living
Work environment
Learning and information
Simpler human relations
Other
1 Push-Pull Factors for Chinese Students Deciding to
Return to China, 1997

Chinese Pull Factors US Push Factors

8% 9% 6%
6% 21%
30% 2%
9%
9%

11%
24%
11% 29%
25%

Higher social status Stress

Better work opportunities Lack of job security
Patriotism Violence and crime
Family Racism
Cultural factors Loneliness
Reform China No choice
Other Other
2 Economic Approaches

■ Labor mobility
• The primary issue behind migration.
Labor shortages • Notably the case at the national level.
High wages • Equilibrate the geographical differences in
labor supply and demand.
• Accelerated with the globalization of the
economy.
Migration ■ Remittances
• Capital sent by workers working abroad to
their family / relatives at home.
• $62 billion in 1999:
• $16 billion each year goes out of Saudi Arabia
Surplus labor
as remittances.
Low wages • 2nd most important most important source of
income for Mexico (after oil and before
tourism); 16.6 billion in 2004.
2 Worker’s Remittances, top 10 countries, 1995-1999
(in $US)
12
Billions

1995
10 1997
1999

0
ia

na

in
l

e
pt
i co

ey

an
n
ga

ec

no
a
d

y
i

rk

rd
Sp
In

tu
x

Ch

Eg

ba
Me

Tu

Jo
Gr
r
Po

Le
3 Behavioral Explanations of Migration

Stay with parents ■ Life-cycle factors

• Migration linked to events in one’s life.
Move to college • People in their 30s are the most mobile.
• Education, career, and family are being
25 First job
established.
Marriage
• Later in life, flexibility decreases and inertia
Promotion increases.
• Retirement often brings a major change.
50
• Large migrations of retired people have been
Children leave home occurring in the direction of amenities-
oriented areas.
Retirement
75

Loss of mobility
3 Behavioral Explanations of Migration

■ Migrants as risk-takers
• Why, among a population in the same environment (the same
push factors), some leave and some stay?
• Migrants tend to be greater risk-takers, more motivated, more
innovative and more adaptable.
• Non-migrants tend to be more cautious and conservative.
• Can be used to explain the relative dynamism in some societies,
like the USA since the 1800s.
■ Summary
• No one theory of migration can adequately explain this huge
worldwide phenomenon.
• Each brings a contribution to the understanding of why people
move.
C Refugees

■ 1. Definition
• What is a refugee and how one qualifies for this status?
■ 2. Contemporary Evolution
• How the refugee situation has evolved in time?
1 Definition

■ The United Nations definition

• The 1951 Convention Regarding the Status of Refugees and the
1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugees:
• “..... any person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for
any reasons of race, religion, nationality, member of a particular social
group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is
unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection
of that country.…” .
• The problem lies in the definition of who is a refugee.
• There are no international agreements to protect people who
cross boundaries for their economic survival.
1 Definition

■ Conditions to qualify for refugee status

• Political persecution must be demonstrated.
• An international boundary must be crossed:
• Domestically displaced persons do not qualify.
• Protection by one’s government is not seen an alternative:
• The government may be the persecutor.
• Could be incapable of protecting its citizens from persecution.
1 Definition

■ Environmental and economic refugees

• People who can no longer gain a secure livelihood in their
homelands because of what are primarily environmental or
economic factors of unusual scope.
• Sources:
• Natural disaster.
• Human alterations to the environment; climate change.
• Contamination (pollution) of the environment.
• Lack of development and opportunities.
• Render continued residence in that particular location
unsustainable.
• Mozambique, February 2000:
• Floods made 1 million people homeless.
• Destroyed agricultural land and cattle.
2 Contemporary Evolution

■ Origins
• The first recorded refugees were the Protestant Huguenots who
left France to avoid religious persecution.
• About 200,000 at the end of the 17th century.
• Went to England, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and
the English colonies in North America.
■ Pre-WW II and during WW II
• Primarily political elites:
• Fleeing repression from the new government, which overthrew them.
• Usually small in number and often had substantial resources available to
them.
• War-driven refugees:
• About 12% of the European population displaced.
• Usually could be expected to repatriate after the war ended.
2 Contemporary Evolution

■ Post WW II
• Change in the patterns of refugee flows:
• The majority of refugees are now coming from the developing world.
• De-colonization in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean:
• Political unrest in many newly independent states.
• Multi-ethnic nature of those states.
• The result of the drawing of colonial boundary lines by Europeans.
• The Cold War also increased political instability in a number of
countries.
• Political instability in Latin America increased due to the vast
social inequalities existing in that region.
• New kind of refugee flow:
• Large and of long (or permanent) duration.
2 Contemporary Evolution

■ Current issues
• Refugees are a controversial issue:
• Especially in the developed world.
• Only a small share of the asylum seekers are granted the refugee status.
• Less than 20% for the European Union.
• Increasingly, refugees are no longer accepted.
• Economic refugees resorting to asylum as the only way to get a legal
status.
• 1996 amendment to US immigration law:
• Enforcing detention for all refugees entering the United States.
• INS can summarily deport those who arrive without valid travel
documents.
• 4,000 detained on any given day.
 2

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
19
81
19
82
19
83

Asia
Total
19 Africa
Europe
84
19
85
19
86
19
87
19
88
19
89
19
90
19
91
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
Refugees per Continent, 1981-2003

19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
03
2 Origins and Destinations of Refugees, 2003

10,000
100,000

1,000,000

Red = Origin
Green = Destination
2 Main Asylum Countries and Internally Displaced
Population, 2001

Colombia
Total
Internally displaced
Yugoslavia, FR Refugees

United States

Germany

Russian Federation

Afghanistan

Iran

Pakistan

0 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000

D Urbanization

■ 1. Context and Issues

• What is urbanization and what are its causes?
■ 2. Why People Move to Urban Areas?
■ 3. Megacities and Urban Regions
• What is the current state of global urbanization?
■ 4. Shantytowns
• What characterizes the prevailing urban environment?
1 Context and Issues

Population growth
■ What is urbanization?
(Natural increase or
• Urbanization is the agglomeration
migration)
of population in cities:
• Growth of the proportion of the
population living in cities.
• Demographic process:
• Urban population growth (natural
increase or migration).
• Infrastructure process:
• Expansion of urban infrastructures
and land use.
• Economic process:
• Creation of secondary, tertiary and
quaternary sectors.
• Creates a society where values
Urban expansion and lifestyles are urban.
1 Context and Issues

■ Causes of urbanization
• Historical:
• Defense.
• Trade routes.
• Social:
• Increased social interactions.
• Institutions representing a society (government, religion & education).
• Economic:
• Linked with agricultural surpluses.
• Increased economic opportunities.
• Access to labor.
• Specialization.
• Economies of scale and of agglomeration.
1 Context and Issues

■ The urban explosion

• Urban population growth is the most important change in
population geography.
• About 50% of the global population, 3 billions, lives in cities.
• Almost all the population growth between 2000 and 2030 will
occur in cities.
• By 2050, 6.2 billion people will live in cities, more than the current
(2000) population.
• Much of this growth will come in the world’s poorest countries.
1 World Urban Population, 1950-2000 with Projections
to 2020 (in billions)

4.5
Developing countries
4 Developed countries
3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
1 Annual Growth of World and Urban Populations,
1950-2030 (in millions)

100
World
90
Urban
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1950- 1955- 1960- 1965- 1970- 1975- 1980- 1985- 1990- 1995- 2000- 2005- 2010- 2015- 2020- 2025-
1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030
1 Context and Issues

■ Developed countries
• Developed countries are already urbanized.
• Passed through the rural - urban migration process.
• Concurrent with demographic transition and industrialization.
■ Developing countries
• Going through a major phase of urbanization.
• Urbanization mainly occurs in developing countries:
• Will account for 93% of the 2 billion increase in the global urban
population between 2000 and 2030.
• Latin America and East Asia is farthest along.
• The rest of Asia is a little further behind.
• Africa is urbanizing more slowly than the other world regions.
1 Stages of Urbanization

Initial Stage Transition Stage Terminal Stage

100 Demographic transition

Rural to urban migration

Developed countries
80
Urban Population

Rural Developing Urban

60 countries
Society Society
40
Least developed
countries
20
Urbanization
0
Time
1 Percentage of Population Urban, 2000

Less than 25%

25% to 50%
50% to 75%
More than 75%
NA
1 % of Urban Population, 1950-2030

Asia

Latin Am erica

North Am erica

Europe
2030
Africa 2000
1975
World 1950

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
1 Urban Population, 1950-2030 (in millions)

Asia

Latin Am erica

North Am erica

Europe 2030
2000
Africa 1975
1950

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000

2 Why People Move to Urban Areas?

■ Context
• 50 million new urbanites each year.
• 1 million new urbanites each week.
• About 155,000 new urbanites each day.
• About 75,000 rural poor migrate to cities each day.
• Major changes in the developing world.
• Migration:
• Makes a significant contribution to the growth of urban areas.
• Accounts for between 40% and 60% of annual urban population growth in
the developing world.
• Huge rural-to-urban migration potential in areas having a large rural
population.
2 Why People Move to Urban Areas?

■ Push-Pull considerations
• Both are affecting rural-urban migrations.
• “Pull” of the cities may determine the destination.
• Migrants are pulled toward cities:
• Prospect of jobs and higher incomes.
• Most early urbanization was the result of pull considerations.
• Pushed out of rural areas:
• “Push” factors predominate as the motivation to move.
• Poverty, lack of land, declining agricultural work, war, and famine.
• Play more importance today than push considerations.
2 Push - Pull Factors for Urbanization in the Third
World

PUSH Rural PULL Urban

Instability
Rural structures Employment market
Low employment Better services
Demographic pressure Low barriers
Modernity

Migration
18-35
2 Why People Move to Urban Areas?

Factor Condition Issues

Instability / Disasters / Push Creation of refugees. Cities as safe heavens.

Wars / Famines

Expectation of jobs Pull Higher wages but higher living costs. Large labor
markets. Informal sector dominant.

Deterioration of rural Push Demographic growth. Land tenure (landless

life peasants). Mechanization (surplus labor).

Transportation Intervening Increased mobility. Lower costs. Construction of

opportunities roads and rails. Access to rural markets.

More and better Pull Better schools and health services. Access to
services water and electricity. Overcrowding and pollution.
2 % of the Population Having Access to Public
Infrastructure in Developing Countries, 1990

Rural areas
Urban areas
Sewers

Aqueduc

Electricity

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
2 Why People Move to Urban Areas?

■ Urbanization and economic survival

• Decision to move to an urban area:
• Part of a complex survival strategy.
• Families minimize risk by placing members in different labor markets.
• Largest labor market maximizing the chances of employment and
survival.
• Cities are the largest labor markets.
• Favelas (squatter settlements) of Rio de Janeiro:
• Cannot be understood without reference to the latifundia land system in
rural Brazil.
• Characterized by large landholdings owned by a limited elite.
• Peasants as contract labor with no ownership.
3 Megacities and Urban Regions

■ Concentration
• An increasing share of the global population lives in megacities:
• Megacities (over one million).
• Supercities (over 4 million).
• Supergiants (over 10 million).
• First modern megacity, Beijing 1770.
• 1900:
• 233 million urbanites (14% of the global population); 20 megacities.
• 1950:
• 83 megacities.
• 34 cities in developing countries.
• 2000:
• 3 billion urbanites (50%); 433 megacities.
• All new millionaire cities are in developing countries.
• 11 of the 15 largest cities are in developing countries.
3 Number of Cities with Populations of 5 Million or
More, 1950-2000

50

45 More than 10 millions

5-10 millions
40

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
3 Cities of more than 8 million, 1950-2000

1950 1970 1990 2000

Developed countries
New York New York Tokyo Tokyo
London London New York New York
Tokyo Los Angeles Los Angeles
Los Angeles Moscow Moscow
Paris Osaka Osaka
Paris Paris
Developing countries
None Shanghai Mexico City Mexico City
Mexico City Sao Paulo Sao Paulo
Buenos Aires Shanghai Shanghai
Beijing Calcutta Calcutta
Bombay
Sao Paulo Buenos Aires
Beijing
Bombay Jakarta
Seoul Delhi
Beijing Buenos Aires
Rio de Janeiro Lagos
Tianjin Tianjin
Jakarta Seoul
Cairo Rio de Janeiro
Delhi Dhaka
Manila Cairo
Manila
Karachi
Bangkok
Istanbul
Teheran
Bangalore
Lima
3 Cities with more than 5 Million People, 2000

Saint Petersburg
Moscow
London
Paris
Chicago Essen Istanbul Beijing Tianjin Seoul
Los Angeles New York
Lahore Osaka
Cairo Delhi Chongqing Wuhan
Karachi Calcutta Shanghai
Mexico City Santiago Hyderabad
Bangalore Madras Bangkok
Santiago Lagos

Kinshasa Jakarta
Lima

Rio de Janeiro

Santiago
Buenos Aires
3 The 15 Largest cities in the world, 2000-2015

Millions
0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Tokyo

Bombay

Dhaka

São Paulo

Delhi

Mexico City

New York

Calcutta

Karachi

Lagos

Los Angeles

Shanghai

Metro Manila
2015
Beijing
2000
Cairo
4 Shantytowns

■ Context
• Many of the new urban dwellers, particularly women and their
children, are among the poorest people in the world.
• Difficulty to access housing:
• Economic costs.
• Availability.
• 100 million people are homeless.
• 928 million live in precarious housing conditions (slums).
• Shantytowns; informal habitat or squatter housing:
• Favelas (Brazil).
• Pueblos jovenes (Young towns).
• Asentamiento irregulares (Irregular settlements).
• Villas miserias (Miserable villages, Argentina).
• Jughi Jopri (India).
4 Shantytowns

■ Definition
• Dwellings are built by the current or original occupant:
• Rudimentary construction materials.
• Did not receive a construction permit.
• Do not follow norms in terms of housing and sanitation.
• Inhabitants have no legal title to the land:
• Most are located in areas being declared inhabitable.
• Own by the municipality.
• Abandoned private land.
• Exploiting a legal vacuum of land ownership.
• Lack of urban services:
• Generally not serviced by public utilities such as tap water, electricity,
roads, public transportation and sewage.
4 Shantytowns

■ Setting
Disamenity Disamenity
CBD
Commercial/Industrial
Elite Residential Sector
Zone of Maturity
Zone in Situ Accretion
Zone of peripheral
squatter settlements
• Shantytowns are constructed
over the least desirable land.
• Put the population at risk.
• Caracas, Venezuela, 1999:
• Mudslides killed 50,000
inhabitants.
• Created 400,000 homeless.
• 500,000 of the 6 million
inhabitants were considered at
high risk.
• Bhopal, India, 1984:
• Union Carbide release of toxic
cocktail.
• 500,000 people exposed.
• 16,000 deaths.
4 Shantytowns

■ Habitat
• Informal settlements:
• Perhaps the most visible sign of widespread poverty.
• About 25% of the surface of cities in developing countries is covered by
shantytowns.
• 30-60% of the urban population.
• Emerged in all Third World cities:
• Following the demographic explosion.
• Now the norm more than the exception.
• Incapacity of private and public instances:
• Provide low price housing for the majority of the population.
• The State more concerned about providing housing for its public servants
and its middle class.
• Housing crisis that could not be solved.
4 Shantytowns

■ Growth process
• People expelled from gentrification in downtown areas.
• Inflow of people expelled from poverty in rural areas.
• In several cases, rightful owners of land have divided it in small
lots and sold it in order to have a higher profit.
• In some instances, land was illegally sold to dwellers being
framed.
■ Is there any hope?
• Housing has always been a priority for investment.
• As the population of Third World cities gets higher incomes, the
priority will be improving their housing conditions.
• On the long run, shantytowns are likely to disappear (or at least
become less significant).
4 Shantytowns as Share of the Total Population

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Casablanca, Morocco

Calcutta, India

Cairo, Egypt

Ankara, Turkey

Bogota, Colombia

Caracas, Venezuela

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Mexico City

Karachi, Pakistan

Manilla, Philippines

Tunis, Tunisia

Jakarta, Indonesia

Rio de Janeiro, Bazil

New Delhi, India

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80