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Migrants, Towns, Poverty and Jobs: Insights from Tanzania

Author

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  • Christiaensen, Luc
  • De Weerdt, Joachim
  • Ingelaere, Bert
  • Kanbur, Ravi

Abstract

For a long time, the urbanization and development discourse has coincided with a focus on economic growth and big cities. Yet, much of the world's new urbanization is taking place in smaller urban entities (towns), and the composition of urbanization may well bear on the speed of poverty reduction. This paper reviews the latter question within the context of Tanzania. It starts from the observation that migration to towns contributed much more to poverty reduction than migration to cities because many more (poor) rural migrants ended up in Tanzania's towns than its cities, despite larger welfare gains from moving to the city. Drawing on the findings from a series of studies, looking at this from different angles (theoretical and empirical, quantitative and qualitative), the paper shows how towns are better at enabling the rural poor to access off-farm employment and exit poverty because they are more nearby. It concludes with a call for greater consideration of the role of towns in accelerating Africa's poverty reduction.

Suggested Citation

  • Christiaensen, Luc & De Weerdt, Joachim & Ingelaere, Bert & Kanbur, Ravi, 2018. "Migrants, Towns, Poverty and Jobs: Insights from Tanzania," Jobs Group Papers, Notes, and Guides 29792316, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:jbsgrp:29792316
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    File URL: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/652421523306615094/Migrants-towns-poverty-and-jobs-insights-from-Tanzania
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    Cited by:

    1. Jordan Chamberlin & T. S. Jayne & Nicholas J. Sitko, 2020. "Rural in‐migration and agricultural development: Evidence from Zambia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(4), pages 491-504, July.

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    Keywords

    model of labor migration; poverty does; contribution to poverty reduction; per capita income gain; terms of poverty reduction; rural area; family and friends; poor rural dweller; decline in poverty; reduction in poverty; public service provision; number of migrants; panel data set; privileges and immunity; long run equilibrium; urbanization and growth; main urban center; consumption per capita; natural population growth; economies of scale; large urban centers; rural poor benefit; cost of transportation; lack of resource; labor market model; standard of living; difference in poverty; cost of migration; urban population; income growth; rural-urban migration; life history; individual characteristic; modern sector; wage gap; rural population; informal sector; income potential; cumulative causation; urban agglomeration; urban migrant; migration pattern; rural citizen; migration costs; return migration; poverty headcount; poverty decline; physical distance; annual consumption; urban location; rural income; qualitative analysis; formal employment; Political Economy; econometric result; rural migrant; econometric evidence; agricultural wage; national poverty; congestion cost; empirical findings; transport cost; Higher Education; wealth index; driving school; urban wage; density function; migration process; smaller towns; empirical investigation; Economic Mobility; upward pressure; tidal wave; family obligation; scrap metal; rural transformation; rural location; security guard; resource economics; econometric analysis; interaction effect; poverty status; food system; informal employment; polity press; global inequality; community characteristic; adult equivalent; significant factor; human migration; paper issue; migration decision; empirical specification; rural gap; social affairs; internal migration; equilibrium condition; Job Creation; Urban Transformation; migration trajectory; social distance; high migration; rural origin; agricultural economics; rural village; seasonal migration; unobserved characteristic; migration destination; credit constraint; political capital; migrant survey; median income; author abstract; classical theory; measurement error; commercial capital; income range; search cost; regional capital; population size; employment generation; informal city; urban entity; consumption variable; poverty incidence; return migrant; cost difference; sectoral distribution; income data; wage employment; rural employment; unemployment rate; monetary cost; commercial purpose; equilibrium distribution; equilibrium value; welfare gains; off-farm employment; economic linkage; poverty effect; risk neutral; income change; city dweller; urban space; poverty reducing; formal schooling; economic geography; rural hinterland; Informal Economy; migration issues; poverty increase; original work; sole responsibility; copyright owner; quantitative analysis; rural region; empirical analysis; empirical literature; productivity increase; empirical contribution; empirical relevance; common feature; urban landscape; important policy; agricultural productivity; migration experience; sector analysis; competitive city; competitive cities; standard error; positive correlation; negative correlation; urbanization process;
    All these keywords.

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