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Migration No Guarantee Out of Rural Poverty
Isagani De La Paz, Dec 30, 2007
CONTRARY to popular beliefs, migration, despite the volume of money it brings, has neither brought rural folks out of poverty nor is it a sure fire way for farm people to clamber aboard the prosperity wagon.
“Where migration is more or less permanent, income from migration depends on the success of the migrant and the reason for migration. So migration is not a guaranteed pathway out of poverty,” the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development said in its recently released report debunking several myths on agricultural development.
The Washington, United States-headquartered IBRD, popularly known as The World Bank, cited in its 386-paged report that “despite massive rural-urban migration, rural poverty will remain dominant for several more decades inAsia ”.
The bank’’s World Development Report 2008 that focused on identifying ways for governments to lift some 600 million rural people from extreme poverty has said that while this has been achieved, it is not due to migration.
“More than 80 percent of the decline in rural poverty is attributable to better conditions in rural areas rather than to out-migration of the poor,” the report titled “Agriculture for Development” said.
“So, contrary to common perceptions, migration to cities has not been the main instrument for rural (and world) poverty reduction,” it added.
In fact, authors of the World Bank report noted that out-migration of people from rural areas has even contributed to the constant rate of poverty rate in cities.
The report, released October 19, noted while the poverty rate of US$1-a-day has been declining in developing countries –from 28 percent in 1993 to 22 percent in 2002, this “has been mainly the result of falling rural poverty (from 37 percent to 29 percent) while the urban poverty rate remained nearly constant (at 13 percent).”
The report also noted that during the period under study, 1993-2002, there was an 81-percent reduction in rural poverty worldwide. But this is “ascribed to improved conditions in rural areas; migration accounted for only 19 percent of the reduction”.
Migration, the report said, “lifts some of the rural poor out of poverty but takes others to urban slums and continued poverty”.
Notional
EVEN remittances from abroad are downplayed by the report on contributing to national poverty rate declines.
While the report acknowledges that there are “indirect effects of urbanization on rural poverty through remittances and rural wage changes,” this is “through tighter rural labor markets”.
But this argument, the report’s authors said, has a conservative but unlikely assumption: all rural-urban migrants are poor.
The bank computed migration’s contribution to rural poverty reduction using the US$2.15 poverty line rather than the US$1.08 extreme poverty line “because it is unrealistic to think that all migrants are extremely poor”.
Even so, using the same assumption that all those who migrate are poor, the report noted that reduction in rural poverty would still hit 81 percent, “not to migration”.
“Indeed, almost all the decline inSouth Asia and East Asia is because of a genuine decline in poverty in rural areas. Even when China
According to data compiled by the Institute for Migration and Development Issues (Imdi), there is no direct correlation between the number of Filipinos going overseas for temporary or permanent work and stay, and the poverty incidence levels.
For example, the National Capital Region, composed of more than a dozen cities, has posted a 4.3-percent poverty incidence level in 2003. In an eight-year period beginning 1998, almost a million overseas Filipinos came from this region.
However, the data that the nonprofit group Imdi compiled couldn't cite if these Filipinos just used the NCR as temporary residence prior to going overseas or which rural area they came from if they, indeed, migrated from farm villages.
“Where migration is more or less permanent, income from migration depends on the success of the migrant and the reason for migration. So migration is not a guaranteed pathway out of poverty,” the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development said in its recently released report debunking several myths on agricultural development.
The Washington, United States-headquartered IBRD, popularly known as The World Bank, cited in its 386-paged report that “despite massive rural-urban migration, rural poverty will remain dominant for several more decades in
The bank’’s World Development Report 2008 that focused on identifying ways for governments to lift some 600 million rural people from extreme poverty has said that while this has been achieved, it is not due to migration.
“More than 80 percent of the decline in rural poverty is attributable to better conditions in rural areas rather than to out-migration of the poor,” the report titled “Agriculture for Development” said.
“So, contrary to common perceptions, migration to cities has not been the main instrument for rural (and world) poverty reduction,” it added.
In fact, authors of the World Bank report noted that out-migration of people from rural areas has even contributed to the constant rate of poverty rate in cities.
The report, released October 19, noted while the poverty rate of US$1-a-day has been declining in developing countries –from 28 percent in 1993 to 22 percent in 2002, this “has been mainly the result of falling rural poverty (from 37 percent to 29 percent) while the urban poverty rate remained nearly constant (at 13 percent).”
The report also noted that during the period under study, 1993-2002, there was an 81-percent reduction in rural poverty worldwide. But this is “ascribed to improved conditions in rural areas; migration accounted for only 19 percent of the reduction”.
Migration, the report said, “lifts some of the rural poor out of poverty but takes others to urban slums and continued poverty”.
Notional
EVEN remittances from abroad are downplayed by the report on contributing to national poverty rate declines.
While the report acknowledges that there are “indirect effects of urbanization on rural poverty through remittances and rural wage changes,” this is “through tighter rural labor markets”.
But this argument, the report’s authors said, has a conservative but unlikely assumption: all rural-urban migrants are poor.
The bank computed migration’s contribution to rural poverty reduction using the US$2.15 poverty line rather than the US$1.08 extreme poverty line “because it is unrealistic to think that all migrants are extremely poor”.
Even so, using the same assumption that all those who migrate are poor, the report noted that reduction in rural poverty would still hit 81 percent, “not to migration”.
“Indeed, almost all the decline in
According to data compiled by the Institute for Migration and Development Issues (Imdi), there is no direct correlation between the number of Filipinos going overseas for temporary or permanent work and stay, and the poverty incidence levels.
For example, the National Capital Region, composed of more than a dozen cities, has posted a 4.3-percent poverty incidence level in 2003. In an eight-year period beginning 1998, almost a million overseas Filipinos came from this region.
However, the data that the nonprofit group Imdi compiled couldn't cite if these Filipinos just used the NCR as temporary residence prior to going overseas or which rural area they came from if they, indeed, migrated from farm villages.
