MIGARTION INTO ULAANBAATAR CITY

Danzan NARANTUYA National University of Mongolia

A new Constitution, which came into force in January 1992 and the National Human Rights Action Programme of Mongolia (2003) stipulate human rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of movement, to travel or reside abroad, to return to home country. At the same time the fees and taxes required under current regulations of citizens moving to other aimags 1 , soums 2 , and the capital city for temporary or permanent residence was abolished. 3 Since the early 1990s a flow of migration to cities from rural areas has been increasing every year. According to the latest statistics, one tenth of the total population has migrated and eight out every ten migrants have moved to the capital city and the central region. In 2006 994.3 thousands out of total 2.6 millions live in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. The percentage of Ulaanbaatar population in the total population increased from 26.8 in 1989 to 38.1 in 2006. Its population density has reached 194 per 1 sq.km., which is 120 times more than the average. According to findings of the survey Children on the move, major reasons for moving for households were to find job (34.3%), to give children better education (31.2%) and to get closer to services and information (20.6%) 4 . Thirty per cent of migrant families surveyed felt that their economic situation improved a little, and 37.7% of them reported that it had stayed the same. However, migrant families face problems of poverty, school- and registration related difficulties in cities. Unemployment rate is much higher among migrants than permanent rural residents. Half of migrants are not registered. The majority of them reside in ger 5 areas at
1 2

Aimag- largest rural administrative unit Soum- secondary rural administrative unit 3 The Constitution of Mongolia; National Human Rights Action Programme of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, 2004, pp 97-98. 4 Save the Children, UK; National University of Mongolia; Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre. Children on the Move: Rural-Urban Migration and Access to Education in Mongolia, CHIP, 2005, p. 18 5 the collapsible and stable round felt tent of nomads

the outskirt of the city, where infrastructure and development of social services are inadequate. Because these households use fair for their cooking many of them run illegal logging and throw away ash and garbage in common areas. As a result, according to the findings of Environmental Research Center, air pollution is 2 to 3 times in outskirt districts than in other areas. As a whole, air pollution of Ulaanbaatar is 5 times more than the accepted norm and it led to the increase of respiratory diseases among its citizens: the average rate of diseases of respiratory system in 2002-2004 was 2.4 times more than that in 2000-2002 6 . The statistics of the last 10 years show that 30 per cent of migrants coming to Ulaanbaatar are school-aged children. As a result of additional burden, some urban schools have to organize the classes in 3 shifts with up to 60 pupils. School-aged migrant children are more than three times are likely to be out of school than children of longterm residents. 33.3% of migrant children have dropped out their schools mainly due to registration problems, discrimination at school, and poor economic situation of their families. This situation not only contradicts expectations of some migrants, who came to the city to get their children educated, but also negatively affects quality of education in both areas of origin and destination. Contrary to overload of urban schools, rural schools have less than 20 children per class. As the normative costs per child began to be differentiated, the amount of educational expenses per capita of some remote and densely populated aimags began to be set below the national average. Freedom of movement matched with insufficient local budget has led to out-flow of professionals much needed in local development. Currently, the lack of professional teachers becomes a problem in rural schools. Moreover, 6-year old children will be enrolled in elementary schools with the transition of school system from the 11 to 12-year from the academic year of 2008-9. Since schools are located in soum, aimag centres and cities more people are expected to move to centres with their young children. Although policy makers see school dormitories as a solution for the new system, parents hardly will send their 6-year old children to rural dormitories majority of which have no in-door toilet facilities, not mention their other concerns. A solution could

H,Enkhbold, Migration Related Problems Faced by the Capital City in National Summit on Population Migration. Ulaanbaatar, 2005, p.55

be the provision of education to these children not separating them from their families by mobilizing and training of local people as elementary school teachers. In addition, both rural population and migrants are more vulnerable in terms of lack of access to basic health services. Before 1990 each aimag and soums had physicians, but by 2005 121 out 340 soums 7 were lacking medical doctors. One in four migrants does not have an access to health services. The coverage of health insurance among the migrants is comparatively low. Even those who are covered by health insurance are likely not to pay the insurance fee. In addition, voluntary settlement of migrants almost in any outskirt area of the city without registration disables provision of emergency medical service to them. Policy-makers and scholars in Mongolia have recommended many solutions as regulations of internal migration such as to limit the entry, to redirect the flow, to prevent it and so forth. The best way to regulate migration in Mongolia, which has vast territory with small population, is to develop regional centres with advanced infrastructure and social services. At the same time Ulaanbaatar can be expanded by building new districts in the extensive empty areas between Ulaanbaatar and its satellite district (110 km.away from the city) in the east. In any case certain limit to in-migration should be sanctioned depending on the capacity of the recipient.

Ts. Bayrsaikhan, Migration Related Problems in Social Sector and Their Solutions in National Summit on Population Migration. Ulaanbaatar, 2005, p.33