Why Secondary Towns can be important for poverty reduction

Bert Ingelaere, Luc Christiaensen, Joachim De Weerdt and Ravi Kanbur

No 27976895, Jobs Group Papers, Notes, and Guides from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper develops the concept of ‘action space’ as the range of possible destinations to which a migrant can realistically move at a given point in time and, intimately linked to this, the set of possible livelihoods at destination. It shows how this space expands and contracts over time through ‘cumulative causation.’ Such a dynamic framework allows for appreciating the role of secondary towns in rural-urban migration and poverty reduction. Secondary towns occupy a unique middle ground between semi-subsistence agriculture and the capitalistic city, between what is close by and familiar and what is much further away and unknown. By opening the horizons of the (poorer) rural population and facilitating navigation of the nonfarm economy, secondary towns allow a broader base of the poor population to become physically, economically, and socially mobile. Secondary towns therefore have great potential as vehicles for inclusive growth and poverty reduction in urbanizing developing countries. These are the insights emerging from the in-depth life history accounts of 75 purposively selected rural-urban migrants from rural Kagera, in Tanzania.

Keywords: migrant; life history; cost of migration; village of origin; place of destination; social science research; diversity in migration; fast economic growth; pattern of thought; large urban areas; place of origin; small rural towns; barriers to migration; economies of agglomeration; development of market; provision of service; lack of exposure; circulation of goods; data collection process; choice of destination; case of failure; cumulative causation; rural area; home village; professional skill; cash economy; urban space; migration trajectory; migration pattern; focus group; driving school; migration network; rural population; rural village; migration process; regional capital; social network; urban life; construction site; dynamic nature; socioeconomic profiles; small lake; smaller towns; livelihood systems; urban location; path dependency; town development; representative sample; internal migration; big city; poverty reducing; broadest sense; socioeconomic background; rural livelihood; family farm; gendered norm; principal component; farm economy; migration history; inclusive growth; open access; bus fare; development policy; scrap metal; personal relationship; physical mobility; quantitative analysis; monetary exchange; price difference; monetary relation; village life; fishing equipment; migrant survey; individual decision; contextual factor; catholic university; cumulative effect; fishing village; colonial times; role models; mobility pattern; income gap; personal network; agricultural area; rural community; home production; education level; construction company; subsistence agriculture; security guard; wholesale price; empirical literature; Job Creation; urban goods; rural origin; migration decision; financial resource; panel data; survey data; migration destination; econometric technique; political motivation; young men; urban system; bus stand; income growth; commercial capital; agricultural production; lingua franca; national language; employment opportunities; employment opportunity; off-farm employment; livelihood diversification; return migrant; narrative analysis; qualitative data; income gain; border post; rural trade; return migration; urban growth; cash constraint; round-trip travel; formal learning; movie star; building skills; future employment; dynamic process; migration intensity; livelihood choice; rural ones; migration outcomes; open door; capitalist economy; economic model; small factory; life course; young adult; path dependent; rural-urban migration; prospective migrants; interview guide; demographic information; income source; free water; village economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32
Date: 2017-09-13
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/78872150 ... migrants-perspective

Related works:
Working Paper: Why Secondary Towns Can Be Important for Poverty Reduction (2018)
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