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Politics of Migration and Finding Work in Latin America

Politics of Migration and Finding Work in Latin America. Mexico City: Shantytowns. Move To The City: the Rural Scene. Domination of large land owners Traditional life style Modernization occurring disproportionately in the cities

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Politics of Migration and Finding Work in Latin America

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  1. Politics of Migration and Finding Work in Latin America Mexico City: Shantytowns

  2. Move To The City: the Rural Scene • Domination of large land owners • Traditional life style • Modernization occurring disproportionately in the cities • Communications orients rural residents to the advantages of urban life Challenges to Rural Mind Set Breathtaking but isolated

  3. Move To The City • Not poorest nor well-to-do • Mean age 25-29 • Not only those who worked in agriculture • Move at varying stage of life cycle Nature of Migration The Journey

  4. Move To The City: Gender • Opportunities in countryside limited • Domestic employment relatively easy to obtain Women more likely to migrate than men Three women peer through a fence at the US-Mexico border in Tijuana

  5. Move To The City: Getting Settled • Many received assistance upon arrival in city – eased their adjustment • Relatives have migrated earlier • Migrants from the same community

  6. Shantytowns & Land Invasion • Availability of land • Vacant land on outskirts available for squatting • Slopes and other relatively undesirable locations • Seizures by force in times of turmoil

  7. Shantytowns (Favelas) of Rio de Janeiro

  8. Ranchos of Caracas, Venezuela

  9. Opulent São Paulo

  10. Buenos Aires: rail racks divide shantytowns from more affluent areas

  11. Urban Sprawl: São Paulo

  12. Effects of Migration on the City • Kinds of skills possessed by recently arrived migrants means - few experience transition from rural peasant to industrial worker • Adaptation to new urban environment • Rural clothing abandoned • Don’t want to be butt of derisive jokes • Families and the process of adjustment

  13. Return Migration • Tendency of urban poor to “float” • Family obligations • Dissatisfaction with tenor of city life • Reverse migration limited largely to towns • “Floating” much less common in the large cities

  14. How do People Earn a Living in the Cities? • Blue Collar • Industrial workers (33%) • Domestic & transport (8.5%)

  15. How do People Earn a Living in the Cities? • White collar (50% in some countries) • Sales staff,(20%) • Office Workers (12%) • Professional & technical

  16. Mexico City Skyline

  17. Rio de Janeiro: Zona Sul

  18. Theory of OVER-Urbanization • HIGH RATES OF POPULATION GROWTH • LOW LEVELS OF PRODUCTIVITY • HUGE SECTOR OF URBAN POPULATION LIVING IN ECONOMICALLY, SOCIALLY, AND POLITICALLY MARGINAL CONDITIONS

  19. Problems Identified by the Theory of Over-Urbanization • Too many people working in wrong kind of economic activity • Marginality syndrome • Cities growing too quickly

  20. Efforts to Reverse Over-Urbanization Special Case of Havana Rural development efforts Channel resources to rural projects Brasilia : a catalyst to internal migration

  21. CARACAS Create secondary polls of growth Ciudad Bolivar

  22. EMPLOYMENT • In 1960’s and 1970’s unemployment rates relatively low (except in Colombia) • Problem: low pay rather than lack of job • Unemployment rose in 1980’s • Foreign competition • State enterprises less efficient • Unemployment declined in 1990’s - but greater skills demanded

  23. THE INFORMAL SECTOR ILO definition – informal sector as the sum of the self-employed, excluding professionals, un family workers, and domestics Entry into more poorly remunerated activities Importance of location

  24. Informal SectorUpscale Other

  25. Role of Informal sector • Some activities perform no effective economic role • Some assist local capitalists (e.g: contracting out to seamstress in poor zones) • Price • Flexibility • Keeps cost down in factory (reserve workers)

  26. Future of Informal Sector • Between 1950-80 declined in most countries, but remained stable in Brazil • % urban residents living with informal sector seems to have increased since 1980 • Recession • Privatization • Resistance to government

  27. Special Situations: Women • Kinds of jobs • Stalls in poorer markets • In-home “shops” • Domestics • Sex for sale in the city • Recession has forced increasing numbers of women into the workplace • Pay • Piece work keeps helps to keep pay low • Cultural attitudes reinforce disparities in pay

  28. Special Situations: Children • Scavenging and fetching • Abandoned children • Exploitation • Urban gangs and crime

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