DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY

University of Liberia

Capitol Hill, Monrovia, Liberia

Discuss the causes of Rural-Urban Migration in Liberia and clearly suggest ways to minimize it.

In Partial Fulfillment of the Course Requirement Social Research (Socio 405)

Section: 6

Submitted To: Mr. J. Mac-Nixon Flomo

Instructor

Submitted By: Mona C. Chibli

ID: 51662

Date: March 21, 2023

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview - - - - - - - - - - - 1

Causes of Rural-Urban Migration- - - - - - - - 2

- Social Factors- - - - - - - - - - 2

- Economic Factors- - - - - - - - - 2

- Environmental Factors- - - - - - - - - 2

Suggestions to minimize Rural-Urban Migration- - - - - - 3

- Rural Investment- - - - - - - - - -

- Industrial revolution- - - - - - - - - 3

- Rural education- - - - - - - - - - 4

- Rural mobilization- - - - - - - - - 4

Conclusion - - - - - - - - - - - 5

References - - - - - - - - - - - 6
 OVERVIEW

Today, population growth and rural-urban migration continue to swell the number of city

residents. Monrovia is now home to more than 1.2 million inhabitants, the majority of whom live

in overcrowded informal settlements lacking basic sanitation and vulnerable to diseases such as

malaria, diarrhea and cholera. Public and abandoned buildings, garages, improvised structures on

vacant lots, and even wetlands are occupied by squatters lacking formal claim to the property

(Wright, Savage and Tennant 2007). The long-held view that rural–urban migration is the

principal cause of urban poverty has led many policymakers to tend to favour solutions that try to

reduce poverty in rural areas, while also attempting to prevent rural–urban migration in the hope

that this will prevent the transfer of poverty to cities. Migration is thus an important component

of urban population growth and the urbanization process in Africa. However, the capacity of

urban towns to plan for and accommodate the increasing number of migrants by providing

employment and access to land and basic amenities is limited. This has led to a largely negative

policy position of governments and city authorities on migration to urban areas. Ruralurban

migration in particular is typically seen as creating pressure on urban infrastructure, environment

and employment, and there is an underlying assumption that the phenomenon is linked to rising

levels of urban poverty.

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Causes of Rural – Urban Migration in Liberia

Many rural dwellers in Liberia migrate to urban places for many reasons; below are causes of

rural-urban migration in Liberia

- Social Factors

Increased access to quality education and health care facilities are a common pull factor in rural-

to-urban migration. Rural areas often lack government services when compared to their urban

counterparts. More government spending often goes towards providing public services in cities.

Urban cities also offer a plethora of recreation and entertainment options not found in rural areas.

From shopping malls to museums, the excitement of city life attracts many rural migrants.

- Economic Factors

Employment and educational opportunities are cited as the most common pull factors associated

with rural-to-urban migration.1 Poverty, food insecurity, and lack of opportunities in rural areas

are a consequence of uneven economic development and push people to urban areas where

development has been greater. It is not uncommon for rural residents to abandon agricultural

lifestyles when their land becomes degraded, affected by natural disasters, or otherwise

unprofitable. When paired with job loss through the mechanization and commercialization of

agriculture, rural unemployment becomes a major push factor.

- Environmental Factors

Rural life is highly integrated with and dependent on the natural environment. Natural disasters

are a common factor that pushes rural residents to migrate to urban cities. This includes events

that may immediately displace people, such as floods, droughts, wildfires, and intense weather.

Forms of environmental degradation operate more slowly, but are still noteworthy push factors.

Through processes of desertification, soil loss, pollution, and water scarcity, the profitability of

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the natural environment and agriculture is reduced. This pushes Urban cities offer the promise of

a less direct dependence on the natural environment. Environmental pull factors include access to

more consistent resources like fresh water and food in cities. Vulnerability to natural disasters

and climate change impacts is also reduced when moving from a rural to urban area.

Suggestions to minimize rural-urban migration

Below are ways we can minimize rural-urban migration in Liberia:

- Rural Investment

There is the need to encourage investors to invest in rural areas by investing in agriculture to

establish rural industries particularly agricultural processing industries to enhance value addition

and create more jobs. This will help solve some of the basic amenities deficits in rural areas such

as electricity, good road-network, health centers, and pipe borne water. It will also checkmate the

growing rate of rural-urban migration.

- Industrial revolution

Liberia is a developing nation, and as such, depends hugely on primary products from the rural

areas for survival. There is therefore, an urgent need to revolutionize agricultural production in

the rural areas. With the ever-increasing population, there is an imminent need to increase food

production. Most farmers who are the centerpiece of food production are smallscaled and to a

large extent unscientific in their production, processing, and marketing. There is the need to

expand their scale of production by providing them with modern agricultural and technical

know-how to enable them adopt improved farming innovations aimed at optimization of

resources and income generation. And through the Agro-poles, a self-sustaining industrialization

operation linked to the comparative advantage of most of the counties or communities, farming

communities can specialize according to their agricultural potentials (Figure 2), which they have

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a comparative advantage on, to enhance productivity. Central to the growth pole is a group of

dynamic industries connected around a resource. For instance, developing the cocoa industrial

potentials in Lofa cluster has more advantage to Buchanan cluster. This strategy will sustainably

improve the living conditions of the rural farmers and help government/development partners to

effectively plan their impact driven developmental programs.

- Rural education

Education is the process by which a person develops his abilities, attitudes and other forms of

behavior which are of positive value in the society in which they live. It widens the scope of our

knowledge and understanding of human rights and good governance, essential for rural

development. Rural dwellers need both non-formal and formal education to expose them to

various skills to manage their homes and most importantly, understand the need to train their

children in schools vocationally or otherwise. Adult literacy is an essential tool for rural

transformation. It is, therefore, strongly recommended.

- Rural mobilization

Mobilization of the members of the community to achieve an accelerated pace of development is

another tool for rural transformation. This is where rural leaders play a vital role in mobilizing

the people to genuinely embark on credible practical community development projects, allowing

them to collectively initiate and execute their development programs and projects. This will

encourage and provide a framework of activities through the massive commitment of resources

for the community in the most effective manner as to satisfy the needs of the community and

subsequent development of the communities.

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 CONCLUSION

In Liberia the movement of people from the rural to urban areas is as a result of socioeconomic

factors such as inferior social and economic facilities which include health care, educational

opportunities, transportation system, and electricity, pipe borne water, housing conditions

amongst others, in the rural areas compared to those in the urban areas, and degrading view of

rural areas and its inhabitants. However, better employment opportunities in the cities, superior

wages in the urban areas, improved living condition in the cities are pull factors that attract rural

dwellers to the urban centres. This indicates that most rural dwellers often migrate in order to

improve on their living conditions. Furthermore, educational opportunities in urban areas, better

supply of electricity in the urban centres, good water supply, better exposure to medical facilities

were sources of attraction to the youths. The implication of this is that mass movement of rural-

urban migration will continue as long as the social conditions of the rural areas are not taking

into consideration. People are attracted to urban areas because they think they will have greater

opportunities than what is obtainable in the rural areas.

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REFERENCES

Wright, N., E. Savage, and V. Tennant. (2007). Real-time evaluation of UNHCR’s IDP operation

in Liberia. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Geneva.

Gugler J (1982). Overurbanization Reconsidered. Economic Development and Cultural Change

31(1):173-189. https://doi.org/10.1086/451311.

Millennium Development Goals (MDG) (2015). Millennium Development Goals Indicators

(Data Series). Retrieved from http://mdgs.un.org/

Nwakese NM (2004). Rural-Urban Growth Differentials in Nigeria, 1950- 1990: A Divergence

or convergence? In Industrialization, urbanization and Development in Nigeria 1950-

1999. Concept Publications Limited pp. 103-107.

Radetzki M, Lipton M (1978). Why Poor People Stay Poor: Urban Bias in World Development.

The Scandinavian Journal of Economics 80(3):337.