There are different reasons why people move from one area to another. Some claim it is to get a good standard of living, an avenue to get a good job, access to quality health care, and so on. All of it is what this article will give justice to. It is defined as the movement of people from villages to cities or towns. Rural-to-urban migration is a reaction to some of the prevailing conditions in the rural areas. This kind of migration is high in West Africa, as a result of multifarious reasons.
Causes
As said earlier, people move from one area to another for different reasons. This is not something that happened without a cause, there are factors responsible for it. There are two factors responsible for it, one factor entails conditions in the rural areas that compel people to leave, while the other factors are those things in urban areas that attract people in rural areas. So, below are some of the causes of rural-urban migration.
- Inadequate social amenities: The absence of social amenities like good roads, electricity, hospitals, etc. compel people to leave rural areas. Urban areas enjoy economic growth because of the adequate social amenities and the lack of them in the rural settlements makes people opt for a better area.
- Employment opportunities: Urban areas have better employment opportunities than the rural areas. And the reasons it’s far fetch: many companies prefer to establish in areas where there are good roads, electricity, access to raw material, etc. And for these reasons, many good companies are found in the urban areas.
- Higher Education: The need for higher education makes many people migrate to urban areas where the majority of universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education are located.
- Availability of Recreational Facilities: many people, especially the youths leave rural areas to cities where they can find recreational facilities like stadiums, swimming pools, cinema houses, amusement parks, etc.
- Business activities: due to the robust economy of urban areas, people with business intentions in rural areas tend to move to urban areas for business purposes.
Read: Causes and effects of brain drain
Effects
- It leads to uneven distribution of population. The urban areas become densely populated at the expense of the rural areas
- Urban areas become highly congested as a result of the mass movement of people from rural areas.
- It leads to an increase in house rent
- People in urban area may start experiencing high rate of unemployment
- There will be increase in crime rate. Many of the unemployed people who moved away from the rural areas to cities with the hope of getting employment take to crime when their hopes are dashed to keep body and soul together
- Farm produce contributes to the gross domestic product (GDP) and constitutes the export earnings of a country. And once people leave the rural areas, the agriculture of such nation will suffer for it, hence, affecting the economic growth of such nation.
- It will lead to disparity in development. The government will prefer to develop cities than the rural areas because the population in the urban areas will attract the government more than villages.
Solutions
The solutions to some of the causes of rural-urban migration are discussed below:
- Provision of social amenities in the rural areas: The availability of these social amenities will provide a solution to rural-urban migration by discouraging many people from migrating to cities
- Establishment of industries in rural areas: this will provide jobs to rural residents and discourage people from leaving for cities
- Provision of recreational facilities: this will reduce the propensity of our youths to move to cities
- Establishment of higher institutions: people who migrate to cities to attain higher learning will have a rethink since higher institutions are now located near them.
- Improved agricultural system: this can be achieved by introducing mechanized farming to villages. This farming is the process of using agricultural machinery to mechanize the work of agriculture, significantly increasing farm worker productivity. So, this kind of farming will attract young people to villages and discourage them from leaving rural areas.
