Migration, population growth, and development

In the 30 years between 1950 and 1980, the population of the developing world almost doubled--from 1.7 to 3.3 billion. Among the most conspicuous signs of this increase are the growth of cities and, in some areas, international labor migration. Since 1950 the cities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have been growing more than twice as fast as those in North America and Europe. Some of the biggest cities are growing fastest--by as much as 8 percent each year. At this rate they will double in less than a decade. About 40 percent of this growth is due to migration and 60 percent to the children born in the cities to natives and the newly arrived migrants. Altogether, about one billion people (1,000 million) now live in developing-country cities, where fewer than 300 million lived in 1950. About 15 to 20 million workers, mostly from developing countries, are now international migrants. About half travel to Europe and the US, the rest to other developing countries. Many of the migrants, especially to the US, Europe, or the Middle East, want to bring their families eventually and settle permanently. Migration to African destinations is more likely to be temporary or seasonal, while Latin American and Asian patterns are mixed. Policy makers in developing countries are voicing concern about the highly visible social, economic, and political problems created by rapid urbanization and by large-scale international labor migration. While governments have tried a variety of policies to influence population distribution, most have been limited in scope and had little success. As long as birth rates remain high in some areas and large differences in wages exist between jobs in different places, most of these policies have little hope of stopping or reversing long-term trends. Family planning programs, although they do not create immediate jobs or higher wages in rural areas, can help to reduce the high birth rates that produce an ever-increasing supply of potential migrants. They also directly address the source of 60 percent of urban growth: natural increase. The main reasons for both rural-to-urban and international migration are economic. Except in the case of refugees (not covered in this report), most migrants move because they expect to find better jobs and higher wages in the new location. Often the decision to migrate may be made by the family because the money that migrants send home adds to and diversifies family income.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)