Publication: Why Secondary Towns Can Be Important for Poverty Reduction: A Migrant’s Perspective
Date
2018-02-13
ISSN
Published
2018-02-13
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper develops the concept of
‘action space’ as the range of possible destinations to
which a migrant can realistically move at a given point in
time and, intimately linked to this, the set of possible
livelihoods at destination. It shows how this space expands
and contracts over time through ‘cumulative causation.’ Such
a dynamic framework allows for appreciating the role of
secondary towns in rural-urban migration and poverty
reduction. Secondary towns occupy a unique middle ground
between semi-subsistence agriculture and the capitalistic
city, between what is close by and familiar and what is much
further away and unknown. By opening the horizons of the
(poorer) rural population and facilitating navigation of the
nonfarm economy, secondary towns allow a broader base of the
poor population to become physically, economically, and
socially mobile. Secondary towns therefore have great
potential as vehicles for inclusive growth and poverty
reduction in urbanizing developing countries. These are the
insights emerging from the in-depth life history accounts of
75 purposively selected rural-urban migrants from rural
Kagera, in Tanzania.
Citation
“Ingelaere, Bert; Christiaensen, Luc; De Weerdt, Joachim; Kanbur, Ravi. 2018. Why Secondary Towns Can Be Important for Poverty Reduction: A Migrant’s Perspective. Jobs Working Paper,no. 12;. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29391 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”