THE EFFECTS OF RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION ON PUBLIC UTILITIES

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

We live in a world shaped by human migration. Everyday people make decisions to leave their hometown, or even their own country and move elsewhere to work, study, retire or reunite with their families. Migration has changed the demographic composition of towns, cities and nations. Consider this for instance: in 1960 there were only 30 countries in the world that had at least a half million international migrants each, but by 2005, the number of such countries doubled, bringing the total number of such foreign-born residents globally to 191million people. The majority (641 of 123 million people) of these international migrants moved from less developed countries (PRB 2008). Millions of others known as internal migrants, migrated from one place to another within a single country.

Migration is broadly defined as a relocation of residence for a specified duration and for various reasons (Hossain, 2001). Migration incorporates all kinds of movement of people for one place to another. It may take place within a particular geographical boundary of a country and then beyond its boundaries. Rural – urban migration is the movement of people from the country side to the urban centre. Migration may be permanent in nature or temporary. People may choose to migrate voluntarily or they may be forced into it. Both at the urban destination and at the rural origin there are demographic, economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts of migration which is diverse and deep. The migration of hundreds of millions of rural people to cities is as a result of both institutional and structural changes caused by economic growth and social modernization. It usually denotes movement of people from one area to another in search of certain benefits that will fulfill recurrent dreams of “better things to come.” In many cases, mobility in terms of migration to new pastures with the hope that conditions would be better turns out unfruitful.

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE PROJECT MATERIAL