1. A. CONTEMPORARY URBANIZATION PROCESSES IN DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES
5. Why and how do people migrate from rural to urban areas? In what ways
is the migration process selective? What policies should be pursued in the
current period to deal with rural-urban migration?
Discussions on migration and globalization often tend to involve international migration;
Mentions on Urbanization and industrialization need to include internal migration. The internal
migration always is the most important part of urban and urbanization process in every country
particular in countries with marked regional inequalities, but is not limited to the developing
world. Migration in general means “the is the movement of people across a specified boundary
for the purpose of establishing a new or semi-permanent residence”1, more specific with internal
migrant, i.e. that which occurs inside the borders of a country, is actually far more important both
in terms of the numbers of people involved and the resulting flow of remittances.
The appearance of migrants in cities and their contribution to the cities is evident, but the
reasons why people come to cities are quite complicated. The reasons for migration can be
divided into two main aspects, the so-called "push" and "pull" factors. Push factors are those in
their old place which force people to move. For example, there may be civil wars or wars in
general in the country, but political or religious oppression, climate changes, lack of jobs or
simply poverty are all important push factors. Pull factors are factors in the target country which
encourage people to move; these include peace and safety, a chance of a better job, better
education, social security, a better standard of living in general as well as political and religious
freedom. More clearly, the reasons for migrants could be determined by many various aspects,
many factors. Those factors driving this migration are common to both permanent and circular
migration, including regional inequality, under-employment in rural areas and the growth of
labor intensive industries. Other factors differ, depending on the history, culture, policy
environment and social structure of each country.
1
Definition by http://www.indepth-network.org
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2. The inequality of spatial is one of the most important reasons of migrant. Inequalities could be
between rural and urban, mountain areas and lowland areas, urban and urban, etc. The inequality
of these different areas, sectors often is income. The inequality of income in different spatial
encourage people moving to the areas with higher income. Sometime the difference in is narrow
but attractive enough to make people want to move. Beside the inequality of income, some other
factors could lead to inequality are caste, tribe, gender, education and ethnicity.
Demographic factors are also important, as young adult populations have a greater propensity
to migrate and large young adult populations in a country will affect migration streams. This
factor was closely linked with labor-market restructuring in terms of industrial/occupational
employment changes. E.g. the high birth rate in some areas could provide human resources for
the lower one in the future.
The last factors, the removal of restrictions to settling down or claiming benefits and changing
views on the importance or necessity of access to village life may increase permanent rural–
urban migration. Many cities have been removing restrictions with the migrants for having their
contribution. Looseness requirements or removing restrictions of the destination cities are
opening “the dream gate” for migrants. It helps migrants stay stably and encourages them stay
longer. This would speed up the transfer of populations from rural to urban areas and a move to
more urbanized societies.
Beside the question of reason for migrant also the question of migrant driver, we must to
consider the question of Migrant selectivity. In what ways is the migration process selective?
This question has been asked by many scholars; of course many answers also have been given
out. A large number of studies, carried out by demographers and sociologists among others,
show that age is the most important variable for selection, but that sex, civil status and
occupation also have clearly selective characteristics. Most countries now practice selective
migration by demanding qualifications, such as skills, youth, and health, for immigrants. High-
skilled or international migration is often more selective than low-skilled or internal migration,
and migration occurring under liberal immigration regimes is likely to be less selective than
migration under restrictive immigration regimes.
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3. The problem of selection has, however, largely been treated only in structural terms where
the starting-point has been comparison of the composition of migrants and those still domiciled
with regard to the variables mentioned, whereas the qualitative aspect, the personal
characteristics of the migrants, has hardly ever been mentioned. In 1966, S. Lee made an
attempt to develop a more general diagram with regard to several different types of mobility in
which he also strongly stressed the importance of the individual factors. The following four
aspects influence, according to Lee, the decision to migrate and thus the whole migration
process. 1. Factors associated with the area of origin. 2. Factors associated with the area of
destination. 3. Intervening obstacles (such as distance, physical barriers, immigration laws, and
so on). 4. Personal factor: some are observable elements, such as wealth and education, while
some others are unobservable features, such as ambition and ability.
Migration is a selective process attracting those with the greatest endowments of human
capital – and therefore contributes to economic growth and labor demand in receiving societies
with remittances, while having the opposite effects in sending societies, engendering further
opportunity disparities, leading to even more migration 2. The lacking of human resources in the
sending regions, countries particularly the phenomenon of Brain-drain is also one of negative
effect of migrants. All those issues need to be solved harmoniously with the benefits of migrants
by promulgation and pursuance some policies.
In the current period, Because of these social, economic problems which Urban – Rural
migration bring on, the situation of urban – rural migration is having a right looking from the
policy makers and from the State. In Vietnam, the registration system called Hộ Khẩu (KT)
which has been used to influence rural-urban migration. Urban-rural and rural-rural migration
were encouraged, while rural urban migration, especially to the largest cities, was discouraged so
as to avoid over-urbanization, social insecurity and disorder. And not surprisingly, with the
market-led urbanization taking place in Vietnam, there has been a growing population of
unregistered migrants, who are among the least protected on the urban labour market, despite
making a large contribution to economic development. A migration survey was carried out by
the government of Viet Nam in 2004 in eleven major migrant-receiving cities and provinces
covering 5,000 migrant households and an equal number of non-migrant households. The survey
2
Massey 1990, Myrdal 1957
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4. showed that nearly 63 per cent of those who moved for work had KT4 3 registration, and 50 per
cent of those who moved to improve their living conditions had KT4 registration. 4 That is briefly
about the current managing residents in Vietnam which is not enough to deal with the migrant
from rural to urban. Policy attention is needed urgently in the areas of developing social security
systems for migrants such as Vietnam. Policy makers need to recognize the importance of
migration for poverty reduction and development. Policy should aim to ease the hardship of
migrants and facilitate a flexible labour force in the short term, in order to distribute the benefits
of growth as evenly as possible. But there is a need to build human capabilities over the long
term so that people who currently have to depend on such livelihood strategies can diversify into
more remunerative options.
Almost every area of policy has direct and indirect effects on rural – urban migration. For
example, in rural areas export taxes and restrictive credit policies adversely affect rural
employment and incomes. In urban areas high wages rates are often the result of government
wages policies. As mentioned above, the different rate of wages and other economic factors
between rural and urban attract rural population moving to urban for livelihood. Narrow down
these differences by creating incentives to develop rural economy such as increasing social
subsidizations while decreasing taxation and interest rates in rural areas. In fact, rural population
is very hard to approach any loans particularly the poors. Thus, besides reducing interest rates,
the state needs to loosen the loan conditions, also giving poors more chance to get loans. For
developing rural economy, one other important factor is infrastructure comprise roads, drainage
system, etc. The rural regions with well connection to cities, other region have more chances to
develop their economy. Training and Education policies are particularly important because of the
large number of school-leavers in the rural-urban migration stream. Accurate policies in training
and education could help to raising knowledge of population and supplying skilled labours for
3
The system is applied in both urban and rural areas. There are four categories of residents: KT1, KT2, KT3 and
KT4. The 2004 Migration Survey defines these categories as follows:
• KT1 – Person registered in the district of residence;
• KT2 – Person not registered in the district of residence, but registered at another district of the same province;
• KT3 – Person who has temporary registration for a period of six months and more;
• KT4 – Person who has temporary registration for a period of less than six months.
There is also a category of “no registration” at the destination
4
From national census 2004.
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5. development local economy. Some other policies are improving the living condition in urban
areas e.g. providing sufficient electricity, clean water, entertainment conditions, etc.
Finally, the externalities associated with rural-urban migration have implications for
formulating a policy toward population distribution and industrial decentralization. Given these
social cost of urbanization it may be desirable to provide incentives to encourage the
development of small-scale industry in rural areas and smaller urban areas. The long run
implications of rural-urban migration for population distribution are particularly important in
Vietnam because of their relatively early stage of urbanization.
In conclusion, Rural-urban migration has been a driving force in dismantling the economy,
promoting labour market integration, and realizing rapid economic growth. The migration
policies have evolved from being very strict to acceptance, encouragement, and facilitation. This
has come after the realization of the contribution of migration to structural changes and
economic development. The process of rural-urban migration is a confirmation that the
development of the labour market and the improvement of management capacities are both
important in maximizing the benefits from migration. In case of Vietnam, although the
unfinished Hộ Khẩu system reform still associates employment with individual identity and so
still hinders labour mobility and causes labour market discrimination, the active policy actions
and legislation in Vietnam in recent years will improve the employment opportunities and
welfare of rural migrant workers and create a condition for finally abolishing the Hộ Khẩu
system.
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6. References:
Bryan Roberts. “Migration and the agrarian structures”. Chapter 4, pp.89-107
Agesa R.U. (2001) “Migration and the Urban to Rural Earnings Difference: a Sample
Selection Approach” Economic Development and Cultural Change, vol. 49, pp. 847-875
General Statistics Office. (2005) The 2004 Migration Survey: Major Findings, Statistical
Publishing House, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Overseas development Institute. (2006). “Internal migration, poverty and development in
Asia”
World Migration. (2008) “Internal Migration”, chapter 7, pp.173-199.
Hein de Hass. (2008) “The internal dynamics of migration processes”
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7. D. URBAN RESIDENTIAL AND ECONOMIC STRUCTURES,
PROCESSES AND POLICIES
2. Analyze the evolution of low income housing policies in a developing
country of your choice and their association with dominant development
strategies.
The Evolution of low income housing policies in Vietnam (a developing country) and
their association with dominant development strategies.
Vietnam has been experiencing rapid urbanization owing to economic development since the
introduction of Doimoi policy in 1986. It is projected that by 2020, city dwellers will amount to
46 million, about 45% of total population. As a small country with only 329,000 square
kilometers and GDP per capita at slightly more than US1,000. Vietnam is still feeling much
pressure on ensuring adequate housing for all the people. Around 25% of housing stock is
classified by the Government as substandard, or temporary. The situation is especially dire for
the low-income sector. Current housing policies are not suitable for the present situation and
only provide temporary solution to meet urgent housing needs.
The increasing of population, urbanization, industrialization taking rapidly has caused
problems in urban housing which is one of the most urgent issues of Vietnam nowadays. After
The implementation of Đổi Mới Policy5, The subsidized housing types has been stopped, Private
owner housing type has increasing rapidly. Therefore, Population who want to having own
houses, must to find in the market. In 1990s, the out breaking in investment of private housing
(mostly uncontrolled) has increased supplying of housing for middle and high income class. In
this period, the managements of housing in general and low cost housing in specific faced many
difficulties. The state was not interested in housing sectors instead of interested in goals of
modernization and industrialization. The houses which were built in the decade of subsidize, has
5
Đổi Mới (English: Renovation) is the name given to the economic reforms initiated in Vietnam in 1986 with the
goal of creating a "socialist-oriented market economy".
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8. been degrading because of non-maintained. For nearly ten years, just a few low cost housing
projects have been built. This stagnation has kept on till last 1990s decade, the state has
recognized the important role of housing sectors. In 2002, New incentive policy has been given
out- Decree no71 (Nghị Định 71/CP) which was about encouragement invest in building low
cost housing and low income housing. It has accompanied with many models of mobilize
resources. But the lacking of related regulations caused to hardly implement these policies. The
participation of private investors is mostly in middle and high income housing.
However, in some recent years, together with development strategies, some low income
housing policies have been implemented. The state has taken back the pioneer role in
construction activities, particularly in supply low income housing. The State owned enterprises
(SOEs) such as HUD, HANDICO, and VINACONEX etc have been developing many new
urban in the suburban area. Although those housing programs have purpose for serving all the
social classes include low income earners, but this purpose could be not implemented well. The
reasons could be: Buyers don’t have enough requirement conditions for buying subsidized
houses; Hardly determine who are eligible for having subsidized etc; the speculation in the
housing market; the investors find less profitable in low income sectors; to deal with those
issues, the state has implemented such many policies:
- Changing from individual construction towards more professional model
of mass construction. Building homes copied from design samples and
assembling them at construction sites will shorten the overall construction time.
Implemented those strategies could help to reduce the prices of housing and
quickly provide enough floor areas for population.
- According to the incentive policy of the Viet Nam Government for
investors in low-income housing, which took effect in June last year, investors
will enjoy exemptions on value-added taxes (VAT) and land-use or land-lease
charges.
- Those who invest in housing projects for low-income earners will also
receive a corporate income-tax exemption for the first four years and a 50 per
cent discount for the next nine years. After that, the rate will be 10 per cent.
(The normal corporate income-tax rate is 25 per cent).
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9. - The proportion of housing area on the project sites has been increased by
1.5 times more than what is allowed by current regulations.
- Under the Government's policy, investors are also eligible for low-interest
loans, loans from localities' Housing Development Funds and cleared plots of
land.
- Pham Si Liem, deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Federation of Civil
Engineering Associations, said localities should also assist low-income people,
including offering long-term, low-interest bank loans. To ensure security for the
loans, the loans should be for around 80 per cent of the house's value, he said.
"Creating conditions for buyers will accelerate house demand; then the market
will itself increase the supply," Liem said.
- To avoid the selling low income houses to the market, all the activities of
selling, buying in low income housing is prohibited. If the government discovers
any case, the houses could be retrieved.
The result after one year of implementing the Government's programmer to build low-
income houses, 37 projects nationwide have started, with a total investment of VND3.6 trillion
(US$180 million) and total floor space of 750,000 square meters. These projects will provide
living space for a total of 64,000 households. By the end of 2010, construction on 1,653
apartments had been completed, with 728 of them sold to residents in Ha Noi and Da Nang. Last
year, around 1,000 government employees in HCM City were eligible to receive loans approved
by the city's Housing Development Fund. Of that figure, 522 people have received loans for a
total amount of VND132 billion. The remaining people are still looking for housing.
Development strategies and housing policies have changed in important ways over the last
two decades. Along the evolution of the housing policies since 1990s, diverse actions were taken
to provide solutions to the most poor. However, stronger and more successful strategies were
implemented to support actions of the private sector. It is time for the private entrepreneurship to
address the informality of the society in a consistent manner. Some steps towards this goal were
already taken.
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10. Most planning concepts, top-down strategies have given way to market and people-based
solutions, process approaches, and an emphasis on building capacities and institutions. Housing
policy has been very much influenced by these dynamics. A sketch of housing policy
developments of Vientam since the 1990s, shows how an early focus on physical planning and
public housing gave way, first to "self-help" housing projects (which mostly served middle
income households and proved to be an unsustainable option to address the needs of the poor due
to the high subsidies involved), and then to the "enabling approach" which concentrated on
maximizing the contributions of all the actors in housing production within a supportive legal
and regulatory framework .
In fact, the promulgation and implementation of any low income policies has direct and
indirect effects on development strategies. In one side, it helps to accomplish the social -
economic goals. In other side, it contributes partly to orient the national development strategies.
These state policies also rely on the broad connections between housing and other development
strategies to increase the availability of affordable housing for families and individuals of all
income levels and provide housing that promotes quality regional growth. The quality,
availability, and affordability of housing affect the economic competitiveness, tax base, and
quality of life of a community. The state policies are helping to ensure that all housing and
related development priorities are considered and addressed.
In conclusion, the most important challenge in low income housing development strategies of
Vietnam is how to balance market incentives and private initiative (which are essential to
efficient housing delivery), with social and environmental goals and collective action (which are
central to equity and sustainability). Most importantly housing policy and implementation
strategies should incorporate an integrated vision, which sees adequate housing both as a goal in
itself and as a contributor to economic growth and social development. The intervention by
policies of national state in the sector of low income housing is Indispensable. The policies must
to be very accurate, specific and scientific. With well implementation of those policies, the poors
are satisfied with the most fundamental living condition – housing meanwhile the economic
goals are still ensured. Therefore, the policies must to be always evolved to harmonize with other
eco-social policies. Policy makers must be able to recognize and build on these linkages so that
housing and other policy goals can be made mutually supportive.
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11. References:
1. Dr. Lê Thị Bích Thuận & associates. (2004) Institution of research architecture,
Construction ministry “Nghiên cứu các giải pháp đồng bộ phát triển các khu ở, nhà ở cho người
thu nhập thấp tại các đô thị”,
2. Result of housing Investigate & Census in Vietnam 2009.
3. Researchers from institution researching of architecture & ministry of construction.
(2009) “Solution to get the goals of low income housing in Vietnam”
4. Ma. Architect. Than Thuy Ha and associates. (2008) “Policies for management social
housing in Vietnamese urbans”, chapter 2.
5. Form Vietnam news networks, Http://vietnamnews.com
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