The Effects of Rural-Urban Migration on the Development of Rural Communities in Awka South Local Government Area

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Migration – the permanent relocation of residential place and activity space – has been one of the enduring themes of human history. It contributed to the evolution of separate cultures and their component by interchange and communication and to the frequently complex mix of people and cultures found in different areas of the world. Massive movements of people within countries have emerged as a pressing concern of recent decades. They affect national economic structures, determine population density and distribution patterns, alter traditional ethnic, linguistic and religious mixtures and inflame national debates. Because migration patterns touch so many aspects of social and economic relations and have become so important a part of current human geographic realities, their specific impact is a significant aspect of our topical concern. Migration decisions may express real life responses to poverty, rapid population growth, environmental deterioration or civil conflict or war. In its current troubling dimensions, migration may be as much a strategy for survival as an unforced but reasoned response to economic and social opportunity. Migrations from rural-to-urban areas are generally the most important form of internal migration, especially in countries experiencing rapid socio-economic change. Rural-urban migration represents a basic transformation of the model structure of a society in which people move from generally smaller but mainly agricultural communities. Rural-urban migration involves a permanent transformation of skills, attitudes and behaviour patterns, such that a migrant is enabled to break completely with his rural background and become completely committed to urban existence. Rural-urban migrations are primarily a response to economic motives. In the areas of departure, population pressure, modernization of agriculture especially mechanization and methods of commercial production, as well as traditional systems of  land tenure have been key “push” factors, while rapid increase of employment opportunities (often with better working condition) in urban areas is the major “pull” factor. Many rural-urban migrants are taking up their first employment but others are changing their occupation often from an agricultural to a non-agricultural one. This fundamental mutation in occupational structure is one of the main results of rural-urban migration.