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118 Int'l Lab. Rev. 747 (1979)
Rural-Urban Migration and Government Policies in Low-Income Countries

handle is hein.journals/intlr118 and id is 761 raw text is: International Labour Review, Vol. 118, No. 6, November-December 1979 Rural-urban migration and government policies in low-income countries Peter PEEK and Guy STANDING* Introduction It would seem an unremarkable statement that the migration of workers from .the countryside to urban areas should be explained by reference to the changing structure of agricultural production-that is, changes in land tenure, type of employment, degree of commercialisation, mechanisation, and related factors. Yet it needs to be made because of the frequent attempts to explain migration purely in terms of relative wages and incomes.' The fact is that average incomes (and even expected incomes) may differ widely between areas without inducing a mass movement from the lower-income area, or there may be small income differences coexisting with a high rate of migration, or there may be an increase in migration after- a fall in income differentials. Indeed one could pose the question somewhat differently by asking why there has been so little rural-urban migration in many parts of the world despite stagnant or declining rural living standards and large rural- urban income differentials. Some neo-classical economists have emphasised the deterrent effect of high rates of urban unemployment, the psychic costs of moving, and the apparent lack of information. But what they have signally failed to do is incorporate in their models of migration the prevailing social relations of production in rural areas. These are crucial. In many societies the relations between powerful landlords and peasants have been such as to preclude the possibility of rural emigration by the peasantry, while governments representing the interests of the landowners have tolerated practices restricting population mobility and on occasion have introduced legislation to restrict it further. However, as countries have begun to industrialise, urban-industrial interests have increasingly influenced official policies. And as governments have come to play a more active role in stimulating industrial expansion, * International Labour Office. Copyright © International Labour Organisation 1979

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