Rural to Urban Migration and Informal Housing in Mexico City - Case Study Example

RURAL TO URBAN MIGRATION AND INFORMAL HOUSING IN MEXICO CITY Name Task Date How rural-urban migration causes informal housing in Mexico City Introduction Informal housing refers to the existence of settlements that are irregular, substandard and lack proper planning and the necessary amenities (Stein 1996, pp. 83). This type of housing is common in developing countries or in countries where wealth distribution is unequal. Construction of these houses is done informally and therefore there is no guidance from urban planning, formal street grids do not exist, as well as sewerage networks, telephones, electricity, numbered streets and even electricity. Informal houses can be legal or illegal and they can vary in type depending on the materials used to make them and the place the houses are found. In 2005 it was estimated that 1 billion people lived in informal houses (Kidokoro, Okata, Matsumura 2008 pp. 12). Informal settlements may not have basic services that can be found in settlements that are formally organized such as medical services, policing and fire fighting. This paper presents a case study on informal housing as a product of rural urban migration in Mexico City. Mexico City is one of the cities in the world that has informal settlements. It is the capital of Mexico and it serves as the seat of Mexican Union’s federal powers. It is not part of the Mexican states. It belongs to the entire federation. Mexico City being the biggest city in the country it is a very important cultural, political, financial and educational center. It is among the most significant financial centers within North America. In 2009 the population of the city was estimated at 8.84 million. In 2008, the gross domestic product of the city was US$ 390 billion. This makes the city the eighth in the world in terms of wealth (Stein 1996 pp. 30). The Aztecs or Mexica were the ones that founded Mexico City in 1325. When the Toltec empire fell the Mexica became the last Nahuatl speakers to move into the valley of Mexico. Their migration met resistance but they went ahead to found a city on a tiny island near lake Texcoco. The Spaniards led by Herman Cortes arrived in the place now known as Mexico in 1519 and conquered it. The Aztec empire was besieged and destroyed in the ensuing confrontation. Tenochtitlan was rebuilt and renamed Mexico City by the Spaniards. They reconstructed much of the fallen empire’s infrastructure and they became the rulers as the Roman Catholic Church took the role of a spiritual basis. Mexico City realized a lot of growth and prosperity from its trade with Spanish colonies within the Americas, Spain itself, the Philippines as well as other Asian countries (Shaw, Porter 2009, pp. 55). The city also witnessed violence in the French intervention, the reform war as well as during the Mexican revolution. At the start of the twentieth century the population of the city had reached half a million. During the 20th and 21st century the city saw an explosion in population growth together with other problems that come with exploding populations. These problems led to the deterioration of the city center which made the government unable to keep up with basic services. Shanty towns rapidly evolved because of the poor populations that were moving to the city at a very high rate (Davis, Hawke 1989, pp. 130). The problem of rural-urban migration Rural urban migration refers to the mass exodus of people from the rural areas to the urban areas because of various reasons (Diego 2009, pp. 66). In case of Mexico City, through the years there has been a lot of movement of people from the rural areas to the city in search of better living conditions. Rural urban migration in Mexico City can be traced back to the 1910 Mexican Revolution which was a symbol of the efforts of the common people to overthrow president Portofino Diaz (Davis, Hawke 1989, pp. 130). 1920 was the year that witnessed the first rural - urban migration also called urbanization. This was the time when people started moving to Mexico City to escape the violence in the countryside. Since that time Mexico City doubled in the size of its population approximately in every fifteen years. The Second World War and the Revolution in Mexico dealt a big blow to the economy of the country. The economic consequences that resulted from the war around the world and the Great depression affected the national income of Mexico and its import and export demand. The focus after the war was to bring a boost to the economy of Mexico that was characterized by low income (Shaw, Porter 2009, pp. 45). The best way out of the bad state was to boost the economy through import substitution industrialization which necessitated an internal labor transfer from an otherwise agricultural and traditional society to one that is based on human capital manufacturing technology so that foreign economic dependency could be offset. Gradual restoration started in the manufacturing as well as other sectors in the country’s economy. Major reforms were made among them nationalization of the highway, railway and maritime systems (Diego 2009, pp. 68). This resulted in Mexico’s second rural-urban migration wave that took place during the 1950s and the 1960s. Many families with the need for employment, schooling, housing, and modern health services moved to Mexico City. The life expectancy of the people in Mexico City grew from 51.9 years to 63.1years with a fall in infant mortality from 116 deaths in every 100 births to 73 being experienced. After approximately thirty years a third of the population of Mexico City was made up of rural immigrants (Davis, Hawke 1989, pp. 137). One of the main things that help to drive people from their rural homes is poverty. Most of them move to the city in the hope that they will secure employment or get something to do to get a livelihood. Today the population of the City is enormous and this is blamed on the numerous waves of migrants running away from economic hardships. The very first wave of this nature took place during the 19th century when the city was going through rapid industrialization and fast growth in population which was common in urban centers in Europe and North America (Dickenson 1996 pp. 59). The massive growth in the population of urban areas was caused by ‘pulling forces’ such as new industrial jobs and the urban lifestyle. The population explosion also resulted from ‘pushing forces’ like the poorly formed government policies on land in the rural areas. Although such policies were meant to create classes of small farmers with their own independence on land through private ownership of formally communal indigenous land they instead forced people out. The rural indigenous poor moved out as the wealthy speculators and land owners came in to purchase these plots. In the early 1930s similar factors brought about another urban migration wave. For the rest of the 20th century the economy of Mexico was going through cycles of boom and bust and this made the rural poor to flow into Mexico City with the hope of benefitting from better economic conditions within the city or to run away from the poverty in the rural areas that resulted from collapsing agricultural prices (Castells 1985 pp.121). Obviously the government was going to be overwhelmed with the huge populations of people that were pouring into Mexico City. The government could not keep up with provision of services and adequate housing necessary for a population with a very rapid expansion. The result of this situation was the creation of huge sprawling shanty towns on the periphery of Mexico City by name Barrios. These houses lacked the basic services and this led to many environmental and health problems for the people staying in those settlements. The growth of the population was so huge that even the urban slums in the inner part of Mexico City could not accommodate all the poor immigrants. Because of this they resorted to irregular housing (Dickenson 1996 pp. 61). Rise of informal settlements In the mid 20th century the city experienced very rapid growth with the urban slums in the inner parts of the city continually becoming smaller to the low income immigrants coming in. A quick solution had to be sought for this problem. The solution to this problem turned out to be the irregular housing otherwise called colonias populares. Irregular schemes of housing were started by developers with huge tracts of land on the peripheries of the city (United Nations Human Settlements Program 2009 pp. 21). Part of these lands was not obtained legally. These tracts had marginal lands that were on steep hillsides or had a recurring flooding problem. This land was partitioned and sold to low income earners on an installment plan. These poor families began constructing single room shacks of very low cost which they eventually called home. These neighborhoods earned the name ‘irregular’ because most of the residents did not have legal deeds to their plots, they did not have necessary services and the houses they built failed to meet building codes (Parker 2006, pp. 89). This trend went on for many years and the result was bi sprawling slums that created a major housing problem that is yet to be solved (Wayne 1975 pp. 145). Investors were not allowed by law to sell lots that had no services like water, drainage, electricity, paved streets, and other important infrastructure. However investors were crafty. They could mark the services only on the maps of the property but not on the ground. Lots on which actual services had been provided were too expensive to be afforded by the poor urban dwellers (Pacione 2009 pp.46). The local government could not crack down on these illegal and un-serviced developments because they were helping to relieve the crisis of low income housing. Thee schemes of housing made developers get fortunes. In a piece of land with the size of 1 square kilometer they often sold 10,000 lots. At $200 for each lot they could make $2million. Developers could not honor their promises of providing services although in their plans they provided some empty strips of land between the lots which was called ‘paper streets’ (Diego 2009, pp. 77-78). Most of the irregular communities in the beginning did not have public transport, running water, sewerage services, drainage and electricity. However with passing time the missing services were provided and many of the people upgraded their settlements. The Mexico City of the 20th Century with its rapid growth could not cope with the growing need for urban space and housing. Today the government has made efforts to deal with the problem of informal housing in Mexico City but not much has been achieved (Galindo, Kunz, 2007). The problem of rural to urban migration still exists since new people are still coming from the country side to join those already living in poverty in Mexico City. The issue of informal housing is compounded by the growing population both from immigration and birth. The efforts of the poor to move from their bad economic conditions do not bear much fruit and therefore they are trapped in the shanties and irregular housing settlements (Brown 1972 pp 65). Conclusion In conclusion the paper has explored the problem of informal housing in Mexico City and rural urban migration which is seen as the main thing leading to the problem. Informal housing in Mexico City can be traced back to the 1920s when the first wave of migrants are said to have moved from the country side to Mexico City. Since that time there have been waves of such nature in different years which have heavily increased the population of Mexico City. Rapid population explosion has definitely been the cause of the inadequate housing problem that is prevalent in the city to date. Poor migrants cannot afford to live in expensive houses and therefore they are known to create cheap informal settlements that are deficient of the necessary facilities for life like transportation, water, telephones among others. Bibliography Brown C. J. (1972), Patterns of Intra Urban settlement in Mexico City: an examination of the Turner Theory, Cornell University Castells M. 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