African Studies Center Working Paper No. 6INTRODUCTION:
In recent discussions of development and inequality in
Africa, at least three positions can be identified concerning
relationships between rural-urban migration and inequality.
The most simplistic and journalistic view is that migrants
come to the cities only to find unemployment and
miserable living conditions. The story, as usually depicted,
identifies the problem as misguided persistence in migrating
explanations based on the inappropriateness of educational
curricula, lures of brights lights, and misinformation. Despite
little evidence to support this view, many African
politicians have identified persistent migration as the
cause of urban poverty and have attempted to stop the flow
of migrants through exhortation, administrative controls, and
coercion. Actions seem to have been based on the notion that
the problems of urban poverty will disappear if only the poor... [TRUNCATED