Migrants, Markets, and Mayors : Rising Above the Employment Challenge in Africa’s Secondary Cities – Key Insights
In our rapidly urbanizing world, mayors often see migrants as a burden to their city’s labor market and a threat to its development. Drawing on national household surveys and four secondary city case studies in Africa, this study finds that migrant...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/581181639545470049/Migrants-Markets-and-Mayors-Rising-Above-the-Employment-Challenge-in-Africa-s-Secondary-Cities-Key-Insights http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36755 |
| Summary: | In our rapidly urbanizing world,
mayors often see migrants as a burden to their city’s labor
market and a threat to its development. Drawing on national
household surveys and four secondary city case studies in
Africa, this study finds that migrants, being younger,
better educated and/or complementary to the resident labor
force, usually strengthen the urban labor force. In
secondary cities, labor market outcomes for migrants are at
least as good as those for residents. Migrants also
contribute increasingly less to urban population growth.
Secondary cities thus appear well placed to leverage
migration. This requires good urban management that develops
land and labor markets, prepares for growth and benefits
everyone, migrants as well as residents. Migrant specific
interventions are warranted when divisions between natives
and migrants are deep. Strengthening the financial,
technical, and planning capacity of towns to better
integrate migrants is part and parcel of the good job’s agenda. |
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