Mexico City: Shantytowns

Challenges to Rural Mind Set Breathtaking but isolated

◦ Domination of large land owners

◦ Traditional life style◦ Modernization

occurring disproportionately in the cities

◦ Communications orients rural residents to the advantages of urban life

Nature of Migration The Journey

Not poorest nor well-to-do

Mean age 25-29 Not only those who

worked in agriculture Move at varying stage

of life cycle

Women more likely to migrate than men

Three women peer through a fence at the US-Mexico border in Tijuana

Opportunities in countryside limited

Domestic employment relatively easy to obtain

◦ Many received assistance upon arrival in city – eased their adjustment Relatives

have migrated earlier

Migrants from the same community

◦ Availability of land Vacant land on outskirts available for squatting Slopes and other relatively undesirable locations Seizures by force in times of turmoil

Shantytowns

(Favelas) of Rio de Janeiro

Kinds of skills possessed by recently arrived migrants means - few experience transition from rural peasant to industrial worker

Adaptation to new urban environment◦ Rural clothing abandoned ◦ Don’t want to be butt of derisive jokes

Families and the process of adjustment

Tendency of urban poor to “float”◦ Family obligations◦ Dissatisfaction with tenor of city life

Reverse migration limited largely to towns “Floating” much less common in the large

cities

Blue Collar◦ Industrial workers

(33%)◦ Domestic &

transport (8.5%)

White collar (50% in some countries)◦ Sales staff,(20%)◦ Office Workers (12%)◦ Professional & technical

HIGH RATES OF POPULATION GROWTH LOW LEVELS OF PRODUCTIVITY HUGE SECTOR OF URBAN POPULATION

LIVING IN ECONOMICALLY, SOCIALLY, AND POLITICALLY MARGINAL CONDITIONS

Too many people working in wrong kind of economic activity

Marginality syndrome Cities growing too quickly

Rural development efforts

Channel resources to rural projects

Brasilia : a catalyst to internal migration

Special Case of Havana

Ciudad Bolivar CARACAS

In 1960’s and 1970’s unemployment rates relatively low (except in Colombia)

Problem: low pay rather than lack of job Unemployment rose in 1980’s

◦ Foreign competition◦ State enterprises less efficient

Unemployment declined in 1990’s - but greater skills demanded

ILO definition – informal sector as the sum of the self-employed, excluding professionals, un family workers, and domestics

Entry into more poorly remunerated activities

Importance of location

Some activities perform no effective economic role

Some assist local capitalists (e.g: contracting out to seamstress in poor zones) ◦ Price◦ Flexibility ◦ Keeps cost down in factory (reserve workers)

Between 1950-80 declined in most countries, but remained stable in Brazil

% urban residents living with informal sector seems to have increased since 1980 ◦ Recession◦ Privatization ◦ Resistance to government

Kinds of jobs◦ Stalls in poorer markets ◦ In-home “shops”◦ Domestics ◦ Sex for sale in the city

Recession has forced increasing numbers of women into the workplace

Pay ◦ Piece work keeps helps to keep pay low◦ Cultural attitudes reinforce disparities in pay

Scavenging and fetching

Abandoned children

Exploitation Urban gangs

and crime