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  • Title: Building on people: in search of urban solutions in Latin America.
    Author: Belisle FJ.
    Journal: IDRC Rep; 1984 Jan; 12(4):11-2. PubMed ID: 12265818.
    Abstract:
    In Latin America most migrants are young adults with higher educational levels than nonmigrants. They come to the city seeking better economic opportunities. In the rural areas, opportunities are severely limited by unequal land ownership, the vast majority of the land being concentrated in the hands of a small number of very wealthy families. In addition, agricultural productivity and incomes are low and population growth is rapidly increasing pressure on available land. The result is environmental degradation in many areas. Thus, many rural people move to the cities in the hope of finding better livelihoods. Urban life means a marked change in lifestyle for the rural migrant. Jobs tend to be more specialized and frequently require skills that the migrant needs to develop. Economic interdependence is high, as households are no longer in a position to produce as much of what they consume. In sum, new social, economic, and political characteristics evolve as urbanization advances. On the average, residents of urban areas in Latin America have higher incomes than people in rural areas. Additionally, they have better access to education and health services and to improved and more diversified services, such as water and electricity. They enjoy a much wider range of work, recreation, and social interaction opportunites. Cities in Latin America do have a number of problems, such as massive slums, high unemployment, transportation congestion, rapidly increasing land prices resulting from diminishing land availability, high pollution levels, and crime. Lima, Peru is an example of a problem ridden city. Its population increased from 600,000 in 1940 to over 5 million at present. Lima concentrates 1/4 of the country's population but over half the gross national product (GNP), 3/5 of the industrial firms, and 3/4 of the bank deposits. Despite this concentration of economic activity, the state of the city's housing and service infrastructure is deplorable. There are increasing numbers of people living in conditions of abject poverty. Over 1/3 of the city's population lives in some 400 "pueblos jovenes," or recent low income settlements on the outer urban rim. Only half the households in these settlements have water and electricity indoors. Schools are very few, and hospitals nonexistent. In Latin America there is wide variation in urbanization levels, pace, and patterns. Generally, the higher the level of urbanization the lower the rate of urban population growth. The diversity in urbanization suggests that research subjects and methods necessary to provide solutions to the problems should also be diverse.
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