1. Mexico City: Shantytowns

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. ◦ Many received assistance upon arrival in city – eased their adjustment  Relatives have migrated earlier  Migrants from the same community

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

7. Shantytowns (Favelas) of Rio de Janeiro

12.  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

13.  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

14.  Blue Collar ◦ Industrial workers (33%) ◦ Domestic & transport (8.5%)

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

18.  HIGH RATES OF POPULATION GROWTH  LOW LEVELS OF PRODUCTIVITY  HUGE SECTOR OF URBAN POPULATION LIVING IN ECONOMICALLY, SOCIALLY, AND POLITICALLY MARGINAL CONDITIONS

19.  Too many people working in wrong kind of economic activity  Marginality syndrome  Cities growing too quickly

20. Rural development efforts Channel resources to rural projects Brasilia : a catalyst to internal migration Special Case of Havana

21. Ciudad Bolivar CARACAS

22.  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

23.  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

25.  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)

26.  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

27.  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

28.  Scavenging and fetching  Abandoned children  Exploitation  Urban gangs and crime