Economic Change & Migration
- The main factors affecting the rate of urbanisation are:
- Speed of economic development
- Economic growth drives urbanisation
- The faster the growth of secondary and tertiary employment sectors, the faster the growth of urbanisation
- Rate of population growth
- Economic growth needs a supply of labour
- This demand can be met in two ways:
- Natural increase in an urban population: A slow way of meeting demand
- Rural-urban migration: This is the more important source of labour as it attracts a wider pool of people into the urban region
- Speed of economic development
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- Counter urbanisation
- Where people move from an urban area into the surrounding rural region
- Counter urbanisation
- Natural increase
- Accounts for roughly 60% of urban population growth
- Due to decreased death rates and higher birth rates
Exam Tip
Natural increase does not include inward migration of people to a place, just the number of births vs number of deaths. E.g. In one street there were 5 new migrants, 10 births and 2 deaths. The natural increase is 8 people because the migrants chose to move there. If they then had children, then those children would be included in the natural increase rate.
- Rates of urbanisation are lower in developed countries as a higher percentage of the population already live in towns and cities
- In 1900 there were just 2 'millionaire'' cities (London and Paris), by 2018 this had grown to 512
- As the growth of cities continues, the term mega city is used to describe cities with more than 10 million people:
- In 1970 there were only 4
- By 2000 there were 15
- In 2018 that rose to 33 with Tokyo having close to 37.3 million people
- Due to modern transport and communication, urban areas are sprawling into rural regions to create conurbations, further adding to the growth of urban areas
Push-pull factors
- There are many reasons for people to migrate to and from urban areas and can be generally classified into push and pull factors
- The push factor is the reality of the current situation for the migrant; it is what makes the person consider moving from the place of origin
- The pull factor is the perceived outcome; it is what the migrant imagines the move will bring to the place of destination
- Push-pull factors are unique to each person depending on their end goal: What is a pull factor for one person may not be for another
- These factors can be further divided into:
- Social
- Economic
- Political
- Environmental
- High levels of unemployment are a push factor, whereas higher wages and a better lifestyle are a pull factor
- Therefore, rural-urban migration is usually a combination of factors that cause people to migrate
Examples of push-pull factors leading to migration
Exam Tip
- Remember do not just state the opposite when asked to give push-pull factors
- Poverty is a push factor, however, everywhere has certain levels of poverty, so a pull factor could be better welfare and healthcare services
Urbanisation pathway
- The differences between developing and developed countries can be shown as a pathway over time
- Countries become more urban as they develop economically
- As they move through the stages, the pace begins to slow and begins to flatten out or decline as counter urbanisation gains speed
Urbanisation pathway
Causes of urban change
- Natural increase
- Accounts for roughly 60% of urban population growth
- Due to decreased death rates and higher birth rates
- Urban pull factors - positive multiplier effect
- Higher wages
- Pace and excitement
- Improved education and healthcare
- Better job opportunities
- Public utilities: water, gas, electricity, etc.
- Government support
The positive upward spiral multiplier effect model
- Urban economic growth is focused around ports and urban cores, and are called growth poles
- This encourages:
- People to move there for jobs
- As new workers earn, they spend – creating demand for additional companies
- They also need services such as housing which also creates jobs
- This creates an upward spiral called the Multiplier Effect, which over time becomes larger, creating a core region
- Areas which do less well are often left behind and generally known as the periphery regions
- Rural-urban migration
- Accounts for 40% of urban growth
- Due to rural push factors along with urban pull factors
- Natural hazards
- Poor basic services - health, water, education
- Rural push factors
- Limited healthcare and education
- Mechanisation of farming
- Lack of opportunities
- Lack of government support or investment
- Harsh and monotonous lifestyle
- Unreliable food supplies/famine
- Rural reclassification
- Due to urban sprawl some rural regions are being reclassified as urban
- Rural villages becoming dormitory settlements
- Counter urbanisation
- This is the movement of people from an urban area into the surrounding rural region due to:
- Mobility and accessibility: higher personal car ownership, increase in public transport and road development making easier access to rural areas
- Increased wealth: making housing and travel more affordable
- Agricultural decline (mechanisation and merger of farms): more land becomes available for housing and agricultural workers leave the area
- Green belt: people need to go further out to get the rural life they are looking for
- Second homes and early retirement: have increased the movement of people from the city to the countryside
- This is the movement of people from an urban area into the surrounding rural region due to:
- Urban economic decline
- If a city's economic growth slows, a city may begin to decline
- If companies begin to close or reduce its employee numbers, people may move out of the city
- This begins a downward spiral of where investment is moved elsewhere, and the city's economy continues to decline
- Urban economic decline is more likely to occur in developed countries and Detroit, USA is a good example of this, having lost more than half its population when the motor industry began outsourcing manufacturing overseas
The negative downward spiral effect model
Worked example
Explain the factors that affect the rate of urbanisation.
(4 marks)
Answer:
- One of the main factors is rural-urban migration, (1) as many people are pulled to the urban possibility of better pay and jobs. (1)
- Natural increase (1) affects the rate of urbanisation which happens when the birth rate is higher than the death rate. (1) This happens as urban areas tend to have better and easier access to healthcare facilities. (1)
- Economic decline (1) can affect the rate of urbanisation, as downward investment means people will move out of an urban area to elsewhere in search of better opportunities. (1)
- Any other suitable response
