Role of Migration in Urbanization

Approximately one in five international migrants are estimated to live in just 20 cities -Beijing, Berlin, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Hong Kong SAR, China, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Moscow, New York, Paris, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Vienna and Washington DC.. For 18 of these cities, international migrants represented around 20 per cent of the total population .

The share of foreign-born persons in the total population in some cities exceeds the global average (around 3.5%) by a large margin. Dubai has an foreign born population of close to 83 per cent, while in Brussels it is 62 per cent, in Toronto 46 per cent, New York 37 per cent, and Melbourne 35 per cent, to name a few examples.

Different types of migration play a role in urban growth and diversity, but to different extents. In the developed countries, one of the main sources of population diversity is international migration, while in the developing countries it is most likely internal migration (IOM, 2015), in addition to demographic growth through births outnumbering deaths. 

In some countries, rural-to-urban migration and reclassification of what is considered urban together accounted for more than half of the urban growth, such as in China and Thailand (80%), Rwanda (79%), Indonesia (68%) and Namibia (59%) (UN, 2018). Circular and temporary migration is found in many urban parts of fast-urbanizing Asian and African countries, especially China and India as well as Ghana and Kenya.

Migration also helps in urbanization by the following ways:

a.      Economic Ways

Most of the migrants migrate for work and most of them are semi-skilled. In the cities, they help to close the skill gaps and proved an alternative to cheap labor. In 2015, migrants contributed $ 6.4 trillion to 6.9 Trillion (9.4%) of the world’s GDP. Since most of the migrants live in cities, they also contribute in raising the revenues of the cities. Migration can affect the overall economy of the receiving city through remittances. The migrant labor also contributes in the healthy competition for skilled individuals.

b.     Social Ways

Most of the time, various people point out the fact that migrant can pressurize the infrastructure of the cities. Yet one thing they forget that, most of the cities cope with the increasing migrants by developing their infrastructure. If the traffic has increased, the cities will surely find an alternative of traffic jam. For eg: Various cities are developing bullet trains in order to cope with traffic jam. If the schools and university are becoming crowded then various schools and universities are built. Therefore, increasing migrants help to develop infrastructure and hence causing urban places to develop more. Migrants are also a source of ideas and innovation who can contribute to businesses, governments and other entities in the city. Their way of life, music and other creative endeavors  all play a role in building the urban more urban to urban.