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  • Title: On the move: migration, urbanization and development in Papua New Guinea.
    Author: Walsh AC.
    Journal: Asia Pac Popul J; 1987 Mar; 2(1):21-40. PubMed ID: 12341033.
    Abstract:
    "Migration and urbanization data from Papua New Guinea's first truly national census in 1980 are considered against a backdrop of spatial and social inequalities. Source and destination factors affecting migration flows and destinations are found to relate to population density, availability of rural wages, ease of access, destination wage-earning opportunities, historical linkages and present day developments. Short-distance migration differs from longer-distance migration; many migrants are short-term, and possibly circular, migrants. Migration and urbanization are considered part of the same process of developmental change." A section is included on earlier censuses and surveys, data reliability, and related problems. Papua New Guinea is a country of vast physical and human contrasts; extensive swamps, impenetrable bush-tangled rocky terrain, and high mountains have until recently been most effective barriers to human settlement and communication. The 1980 census showed a citizen population of 2,978,057; provincial increases ranged from .7% to 4.2%, mainly as a result of differing migration rates. Nearly 1 in 10 of the citizen population were interprovincial lifetime migrants in 1980. The people of Papua New Guinea are becoming more mobile, even in remote areas of the country, and migration destinations are those most strongly associated with wage employment. The recency of citizen urbanization and small urban populations means that migration plays a major role in shaping the demographic characteristics of towns. In 1980, the government was the major employer in most towns and an important employer in all of them. There were 3 basic types of towns: 1) informal towns associated with households with no wage incomes; 2) private sector towns associated with wage employment, manufacturing, and mining; and 3) government towns associated with services and professional/technical occupations. Factors most influencing urban inter-provincial migration flows were town size, wage employment, and distance or ease of access. Migration and urbanization are both part of the same process of development and change; in Papua New Guinea, this process has yet to reduce many of the social and spatial inequalities created by colonialism without creating new ones in their place.
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