Rural Urban Migration in Ethiopia

I. Introduction

Rural urban migration has been one of the most common phenomenon in the past centuries. It has contributed a lot in the urbanization history of many countries of the world. Basically the movement and transfer of rural population to the urban areas has not always been a great problem as it is today.

Most rural people tend to more to urban areas either because they are attracted by the settings and situations in urban areas and as better standard living better chance for employment opportunities, sufficient provision of social services or because they are forced by the conditions in rural areas such as scarcity of agricultural land, stagnation of the agricultural sector and rural poverty.

Because of the increase in the size of rural population mainly in the developing countries, rural-urban migration is creating more problem. moreover the situation of political instability, internal conflict, absence of adequate social services, exposure to risk due drought, landlessness, soil erosion and unfavorable climatic conditions contributed to the migration of rural communities to urban areas in large numbers.

In the case of Ethiopia, rural-urban migration is closely linked to environmental degradation and rural poverty. This phenomenon has been exacerbated because of the continuing ecological degradation, drought, famine and war resulted much pressure on urban areas in socio-economic, legal, political and environmental terms.

As a result of high incidence of net migration, the growth of urban centers is exceeding the rate of population growth at national level. Obviously without socio-economic development along side with the rapid urbanization process, there will not be a balance between the increasing urban population and available economic opportunities and social services. However rural- urban migration in Ethiopia has been significantly a response to push factors related to ecological degradation and poverty in rural areas than a response to...