A theory on the urban rural migration

Abstract

The internal migration consists one of the major problems that a geographical region faces during the transition process from the traditional way of production to the modern one. Therefore it attracts wide attention in contemporary literature. The purpose of this essay is to prove first of all that the rural urban migration process – contrary to the neoclassical doctrines- cannot be analyzed in the absence of the economic development and the formation of primitive accumulation concepts. Second -contrary to the classical and neoclassical doctrines and the considerations developed in the context of Marxist theory – the migration operates in a selective way. The population surplus does not move (the marginal person according to the academic theory), on a contrary the typical peasant is driven out (or the middle worker), leading to several economic and social consequences for the rural areas. The causes stem from the fact that migration is a non-harmonic mechanism. In latest stages the development of the modern sector (industries- services), via exploitation of agriculture (appropriation of ‘produit net’), destroys the traditional way of life in the mainland (in which rationalism is being “introduced”), while the appearance of development poles makes the cities attractive to rural population. The two factors pulling– repulsion are dialectically associated, having as a result the impressive urbanization of the recent years.