Introduction

An immense amount of work has been carried out into the relationship between economic development and migration from rural areas to cities and towns, particularly in the last fifty years or so. This is as it should be, as this movement of people world-wide is largely based on the assumption of a shift away from rural poverty to higher-paid urban jobs, and thus to a better distribution of working people. It is also based on the very real fact of higher levels of agricultural productivity which provide the basis for the release of people from agriculture to other occupations, generally situated in urban centres, and sometimes in foreign countries. Important problems are involved in this flow of people, especially that of imbalance between the rates of migration and the jobs available in the receiving areas. The problem is receiving much attention in developing countries. The sheer scale of urbanisation has also increased dramatically in this century, especially in its second half, and the lion’s share of the difficulty faces the poorer countries least able to cope with it.