Chapter 1 Introduction
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providers and residents, need to be considered. This will produce much richer analyses of the diverse migration and mobility patterns and help improve urban migration policymaking practices.
1.4 1.4.1. Contribution of the report GUIDE TO THE REPORT
This report explores how migration and migrants are shaping cities, and how the life of migrants in turn is shaped by cities, their people, organizations and rules. It examines the relationships between migrants and cities on such issues as employment, housing and health, and also considers how migrants help to build and revive cities with their resources and ideas, both in the origin and host country. The report also identifies innovative examples of how some cities are seeking to manage the challenges of increased global mobility and social diversity with varying degrees of success. It will highlight new policy developments concerning urban partnerships among migrant groups, local governments, civil society and the private sector which are designed to meet these challenges posed by migration and cities. Migrants are still largely absent from global discourses on urbanization and cities are not a major part of global migration debates. The present report aims to address these gaps in three distinct ways: • By documenting how migration is shaping cities and the situation of migrants in cities. Much of the current international discussion about migration trends and migration policy tends to focus on the national level. Taking the migration enquiry to the city level has increased the understanding of the local political economies of migration, and the close connection between migration and urban development. It has shifted the focus from why people move to how they work, live and shape habitats that connect the world as their migration and mobility patterns diversify. • By paying attention to the livelihood of migrants in the cities of the Global South. The existing discussions on migrants and cities are limited as they tend to focus primarily on the Global North and the integration of international migrants. This is due to the traditional focus on migration from low- and middle-income countries to more affluent ones. But this report takes a global perspective and particularly focuses on the situation of migrants in the cities of the Global South. • By examining both internal and international migration. Cities across the development spectrum have growing mobile and diverse populations to manage. In the developed countries, one of the main sources of population diversity is international migration, while in the developing world, it is most likely internal migration3 and to a lesser extent, growing international South– South migration. While acknowledging the vast differences between international and internal migration scenarios, and between the ability of rich, emerging and poorer countries to deal with these, the present report highlights the growing evidence of potential benefits of all forms of migration and mobility for city growth and 3
There is a serious lack of consistent, current and comparable data on foreign born urban populations in most countries of the Global South.