While most of the literature on
internal migration focuses on rapid urbanization and metropolitan cities
as destinations filled with opportunities for migrants, little attention has been
paid to those people who leave the big cities. Not only do migrants return to
their places of origin in rural areas, but many people decide to leave their place
of birth in the metropolitan area to find opportunities in smaller towns.
Recently, Christiaensen et al. (2013) have pointed out the importance of
smaller towns for the economic development of African countries in contrast to
the traditional standard two-sector development model. And considering all the
discussions about the issues around urbanization, such as high unemployment,
poor housing infrastructure, high crime etc., it should not be surprising that
some people also consider leaving these difficult environments.
However, from an economic perspective,
one of the main drivers for internal migration is the seeking of higher wages.
As wages are on average much higher in metropolitan areas, leaving these areas
comes at the cost of a wage loss. Despite this, Brazil’s 2010 census, the most
recent demographic data, shows that net-migration into metropolitan cities[1]
is negative for working-age male migrants. Between 2009 and 2010, 20% of all
working age male migrants within Brazil moved out of metropolitan micro-regions
to non-metropolitan micro-regions with on average less than 500,000
inhabitants. During the same period, only around 15% moved in the opposite
direction. These urban out-migrants actually change jobs and are not just
reflecting suburbanisation by commuters. Also, the migrants are a diverse
group: a third of them have attained only primary education, while around 18% are
college graduates.
Therefore, in my research I aim
to use econometric methods to estimate which factors make smaller towns more
attractive compared to metropolitan cities, if not wages. My findings suggest,
that one of the main economic drivers is the much lower living costs in smaller towns,
such that migrants on average do not experience a wage loss in real terms. They
prefer towns with growing economic opportunities rather than very small and
remote areas. In terms of non-economic factors, the migrants appear to value
the quality of provision of education. These findings indicate that the
investments of the Brazilian government during the recent years into
infrastructure development of smaller towns and former less developed and more
remote regions is bearing fruit. As more and more Brazilians are attracted to
these locations they contribute to a reduction in regional inequality. Thus it could be
worth widening the focus of our migration research to include these destinations outside of
metropolitan agglomerations and for policy makers, too, to acknowledge the
potential of smaller towns.
Reference:
Christiaensen, L., J. De Weerdt and Y. Todo (2013),
Urbanization and poverty reduction: the role of rural diversification and
secondary towns, Agricultural Economics, 44, 435-447.
Eva Maria Egger is a doctoral candidate in Economics at the University of Sussex, funded by the Migrating out of Poverty Research Programme Consortium.
[1] Metropolitan
areas are microregions with one million or more inhabitants. This definition
follows the United Nations’ World Urbanization Prospects (UNWUP, http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/)
(Christaensen et al. 2013).
