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Urbanization & Migration
The urban share of the world’s population has
grown from 30 per cent in 1950 to an estimated 47 per cent in
2000. By 2015, the urban proportion is projected to rise to 53
per cent of total population.
Large movements of people from rural to urban
areas continue in most developing countries. Rapid urbanization
has led to a growing number of megacities that have in many cases
overwhelmed the environmental resources and spawned huge peri-urban
slums. Urban authorities are striving to provide, inter alia,
infrastructure and basic social services to cope with the development
and environmental implications of growing numbers of people. The
challenges they face are often compounded by the large numbers
of the urban poor living in slums and unplanned settlements.
The policy approach taken by many countries
favours integrated urban and rural development programmes that
adapt to, rather than attempt to modify, population dynamics.
Unlike policies adopted in the 1970s and 1980s, there are few
attempts being made to contain urban growth and to relocate population
to new, secondary cities. Land management policies and human settlement
programmes typically include measures to upgrade infrastructure
and services, control the location of new housing and, in general,
ensure sound land use. Most such programmes are designed to mitigate
negative effects of an earlier era.
Although dwarfed by the movements of people within
borders (internal migration), international migration is also increasing.
This includes both permanent migration and temporary or labour migration
as well as refugees and undocumented migrants. International migration
is often associated with differences in economic opportunities,
and the rate has accelerated with increasing globalization. Increased
labour demand to fuel dynamic economies, and labour shortages, is
a key factor in international migration flows.
Although accounting for only 2 per cent of the
world population, a growing number : now 125 million people : are
living outside the countries of their birth (including refugees
and undocumented migrants). International migration is projected
to remain high during the twenty-first century. The more developed
regions will probably continue to receive international migrants,
with an average net gain of about 2 million per year over the next
50 years.
In many receiving countries, industries and infrastructure
are built and maintained, in part, by migrant labour. The economic
effects of migration run both ways, with remittances from migrant
flowing from more to less-developed parts of the world.
Today, women make up nearly half of the international
migrant population. However, women migrants frequently end up in
the low-status, low-wage production and service jobs, and are particularly
vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, including being trafficked
for commercial sex.
UNFPA's 1996 State of the World's Population
Report: "Changing Places: Population, Development and the
Urban Future" provides more information and analysis about
the impact of population shifts.
Studies have shown that both internal and international
migratory movements can contribute to the spread of infectious
diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Refugees constitute another category
of migrants whose number are increasing to the point that they
outnumber local populations in some areas.
The environmental impact of massive refugee
resettlement has been severe in some instances and manifested
in the form of deforestation, uncontrolled tapping of ground water
resources, overexploitation of land and strain on the social infrastructure.
The effects of environmental changes on the
population are also increasing in scope. For example, it is estimated
that globally there are at least 25 million ‘environmental refugees’
– individuals who have migrated because they can no longer secure
a livelihood from the land because of deforestation, desertification,
soil erosion and other environmental problems. This environmental
exodus has occurred mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian sub-continent,
China, Mexico and Central America.
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The International Migration Policy
Programme (IMP) was launched in response to ICPD (ICPD
Programme of Action, Chapter X: “International Migration”),
in 1998 by UNFPA, in collaboration with the United
Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR),
the International Labour Office (ILO) and the International
Organization for Migration (IOM). As an inter-agency
activity, IMP is implemented in collaboration with
a wide range of global and regional institutions,
including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR), the Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Organization
of African Unity (OAU).
Through a multi-disciplinary approach,
IMP aims at strengthening the capacity of governments
to deal with migration and forced displacement issues
at national and regional levels and at fostering cooperation
among States in these areas for best practices in
migration and asylum management, and protection of
refugees and other vulnerable groups.
Between November 1998 and May 2002,
IMP organized eleven major sub-regional seminars and
conferences, some of which were follow-up events to
previous meetings. These gatherings involved more
than 600 middle and senior level government officials
from more than 100 countries in the Caribbean; Central
and Eastern Europe; East Africa, the Horn of Africa
and the Great Lakes Region; Central Asia, the Caucasus
and Neighbouring States; South-East Asia and the Pacific;
Southern Africa and West Africa. The meetings also
involved some 200 international migration experts
as well as a large number of observers from Western
countries and officials from international and regional
organizations. Each of these IMP exercises was held
in a specific regional context, gathering countries
that are part of a “common migration space” and face
similar, if not common, migration concerns as sending,
transit or receiving States. Using this regional approach,
IMP maintained its focus on those developing countries
and countries in transition where national migration
management and policy, and intergovernmental dialogue
and cooperation, need strengthening. At the same time,
it pursued efforts to facilitate the interface between
these countries and governments with more advanced
migration management capacity and expertise.
UNFPA is supporting the collection
of timely data on migration, which started in 2001,
with a pilot project for the region of Central Asia,
the Caucasus and Neighbouring States. Under its capacity
building and inter-State cooperation modality, with
UNFPA support, IMP has also collected migration data
for the regions of the Caribbean; West Africa and East
Africa; the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes Region.
In agreement with UNFPA, the final objective is to produce
for ICPD+10, a document entitled “Migration at a Glance:
Global, Regional, and Sub-Regional Migration Management
Issues”. This publication will also focus on the challenges
of gathering, analyzing, disseminating and using migration
data for policymaking within and between countries and
regions. Given the work of the UN Statistical Division
in collecting International Migration Data, IMP will
focus its efforts on capacity building and international
migration information dissemination, in collaboration
with its partners.
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