This presentation shares the brief overview of the effects of rural to urban migration in Pakistan.

1. EFFECTS OF
RURAL TO URBAN
MIGRATION IN
PAKISTANK H A L I D S A I F U L L A H

2. LET’S DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING
QUESTION?
• What are the different effects of rural to urban migration in
Pakistan?
- At individual, family, village /city and society / country
level
- Social, political, economic, environmental and cultural
effects

3. RURAL TO URBAN MIGRATION – KEY FACTS
• Urban population 40%, Rural 60% during 2014
• Taking into account “peri-urban” regions – the urban
has already reached 50%.
• Urban Areas – 80% GDP, 60% labour force, almost all taxes
• It is estimated that 45,000 workers are coming to the Karachi
every month from different parts of Pakistan. (1,500 persons
daily)
• R2U migration is primary reason of urbanisation in Pakistan.

5. PUSH & PULL FACTORS
• The Push factors: low productivity of agricultural land, land
fragmentation, landlessness, surplus farm labor, poor
economic, health and educational opportunities, disasters,
green revolution
• The Pull factors: better wage rate, better standard of living,
availability of basic needs of health, education and urban
infrastructure.
• Government policies and programs are urban biased

6. EFFECTS OF R2U MIGRATION - RURAL
Effects of R2U migration depends upon
• Education
• Health
• Age
• Family status
• Resources
• Social networking
• Exposure

7. SOCIAL EFFECTS OF R2U MIGRATION - RURAL
At Individual level At Family Level At Society Level
• Irrelevant skill sets
• Stress / depression
• Uprooted from
family
• Educated and
skilled people
leave first
• Skilled farmers to
unskilled labourers
• Diminishing
professions
• Changes in
relations
• Uprooted from
tribe / extended
family
• Industrially
produced goods
are available
• Weakening of
feudal hold
• Changes in rural
infrastructure

8. SOCIAL EFFECTS OF R2U MIGRATION - URBAN
At Individual
level
At Family Level At Society Level
• Urban
diseases
• Stress /
depression
• English
medium
schooling
• No space
for children
to play
• 1.2 million
street children
• Slums are
always on
hazardous
places
• Nuclear families
• Weak social
networking
• Child labour
• Ageing urban
population
• Social and ethnic tensions between
natives and migrant populations
• Poverty shift to Urban Areas
• “Ruralisation” of urban areas
• Traffic congestion and accidents
• Caste system
• Terrorism, crime, insecurity & gender
based violence due to high visibility
• Katchi abadis and informal
settlements, poor quality of life
• Loss to built-cultural heritage
• Decline in fertility and mortality in
urban areas

9. ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF R2U MIGRATION
• Irrelevant rural skills in urban areas, leaving gap behind
• Uncertain income of daily wages labour
• Social services are costly for slums dwellers
• Expenses on diseases
• Urbanisation is linked to economic growth, human aspects
are ignored (preference to industries, investors etc)
• Increase in travel time & number of bikes

10. ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF R2U MIGRATION
• Increased GDP (cities contributes 80% in our GDP?)
• Access to social services
• Infrastructure (roads, transportation, sewerage, water supply
etc)
• Access to Government
• Formal economy, more tax payers
• Skilled workforce
• Access to technology
• Employment
• Overall poverty reduction, Remittances

11. SOCIOECONOMIC EFFECT OF R2U
MIGRATION - HOUSING
• Unavailability of affordable & low cost housing - people are
compelled to live in Katchi Abadies.
• Serious housing crisis and housing backlog, about 9 million housing
units required in country (2015).
• Average national occupancy rate per room is 3.5 as compared to
international standard of 1.1 per room.
• Roughly 30-40 percent of housing demand is addressed by mainstream
developers who cater to high-end market.
• 38% and 45% of city’s population lives in Katchi Abadies in Lahore and
Karachi respectively

12. LETS WATCH A DOCUMENTARY
• This documentary is about India. We have almost similar
patterns of rural to urban migration.
• We will have then a five minutes discussion on social and
economic effects of migrants.

13. POLITICAL EFFECTS OF R2U MIGRATION
• New / changing electoral constituencies
• Competition for power and resources (conflicts, violence, land mafia,
water mafia etc)
• Ethno-political tensions
• Emergence of new political players
• Poor / biased land zoning - urban / commercial land
• Poor land records – Land mafia
• Conversion of agriculture land into housing colonies (will discuss in
details in next chapter)
• Centralization of financial and administrative powers by the provincial
governments despite introduction of the 18th Constitutional
Amendment

14. ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF R2U MIGRATION
• Resources under stress
• Global warming and climate change
• Urban flooding
• Heat waves
• Sewerage problems, costing 3.9 percent of GDP
• Change in the frequency and intensity of rainfall and
temperature
• Water pollution costing 1.8%of GDP
• Air pollution
• Water and air borne diseases

15. • Question, Comments and Feedback
• Thank you