Africa on the Move African Migration and Urbanisation in Comparative Perspective

by Tienda, Marta; Findley, Sally E.; Tollman, Stephen; Preston-Whyte, Eleanor

• ISBN13: 9781868144327
• ISBN10: 1868144321
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-28
• Publisher: Wits University Press

Summary

This thirteen-chapter volume, based on a conference held in South Africa in June 2003, describes and compares patterns of internal, regional and international migration in Africa, with comparative insights from Asia and Latin America. It strives to evaluate how migration and urban living influences well-being among movers and stayers in the context of rapid social, economic and political change that characterizes most African nations. The authors, an international team of over twenty academics and experts in the field, push the frontiers of current African migration and urbanization research and strive for an original synthesis of insights from ongoing studies. The comparative focus highlights similarities across diverse contexts in order to bring place-specific processes into sharper relief. The study challenges certain traditional notions about migration, revisiting notions of the urban and rural, and explores how communication technology influences movement. Topics considered range from broad comparative perspectives on linkages between population movement, urban structures and economic development to the spread of infectious diseases and the social regulation of migration flows. Issues of gender and ethnic inequities are incorporated and there is a strong focus on internal migration and urban systems within Africa. The study is structured in three sections: migration and urbanization in global and regional contexts; internal migration, employment and gender; and migration and population health.

Author Biography

Marta Tienda is professor in demographic studies, professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University; Sally Findley is a professor of clinical population and family health at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. Stephen Tollman heads the School of Public Health's Health & Population Division at the University of the Witwatersrand and chairs the University's Population Program. Eleanor Preston-Whyte is currently a researcher in the field of social anthropology and holds a research professorship in the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Table of Contents

Comparative perspectives on migration and urbanisation : introduction	p. 1
The dimensions of migration in Africa	p. 15
Patterns and processes of international migration in the twenty-first century : lessons for South Africa	p. 38
Comparative urban systems : an overview	p. 71
Urbanisation in Asia : an overview	p. 115
Urbanisation and internal migration patterns in Latin America	p. 140
Migration and the urban informal sector in Colombia	p. 160
Bridging the gap : internal migration in Asia	p. 180
Highly prevalent circular migration : households, mobility and economic status in rural South Africa	p. 194
Moving on : patterns of labour migration in post-apartheid South Africa	p. 217
Forced displacement in Colombia : public policy, gender and initiatives for reconstruction	p. 232
Migration, urbanisation and child health : an African perspective	p. 252
Migration, urbanisation and malaria : a comparative analysis of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Machadinho, Ronddnia, Brazil	p. 280
Health consequences of migration : evidence from South Africa's rural north-east (agincourt)	p. 308
African migration in the twenty-first century : conclusion	p. 329
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