RURAL - URBAN MIGRATION IN DAR ES SALAAM

INTRODUCTION:

Major urban centers, experiencing rapid and unplanned population growth due to intense migratory movements, face serious problems with sanitation, overcrowding, poor housing, pollution, lack of food, and inadequate water. During the African colonization by Europeans, small trading centers were established along the coast. Although some centers eventually collapsed, others flourished and became major cities, such as Dakar (Senegal), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Lagos and Port Harcourt (Nigeria),
Mombassa (Kenya), Takoradi and Tema (Ghana), and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) (Thomas,1970). The latter became the most densely populated area in Tanzania, and the city with the most rapid population growth in East Africa. The latest Population and Housing Census reveals that
Dar es Salaam moved from 356 thousand inhabitants in 1967 to 2.5 million in 2002. Since 1965, it is estimated that approximately 69% of the population growth was caused by rural-urban migration (Sommers, 2001). Dar es Salaam has an area of 1,393km2 experienced the fastest population growth in Tanzania (4.8% between 1978 and 1988, and 4.3% between 1988 and2002), mainly due to rural-urban migration,

WHY DO PEOPLE MIGRATE FROM RURAL TO URBAN:
IFAD explained that more than 70% continent’s people live in rural areas. In Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 218million people live in extreme poverty. In Western and Middle Africa an estimated 90 million people live in rural. In Eastern and Southern Africa around 130 million poor live in rural areas, Life in rural area depends on agriculture for food and livelihood, traditional economies and characterized by continuing stagnation, poor production, low income, lack of access to markets, Land degradation, deforestation and overgrazing. Rural poverty has its roots in limited availability of good arable land and water, impact of droughts and floods, political conflict, poor social and transport infrastructure, high rates of illiteracy, weak local institutions, with little political influence, poor inter-gration of rural with the national economy and migration of rural youth to urban areas. Rural poverty has its roots in colonial system and the policy and institutional restraints that it imposed on poor people.

THE STATUS OF POVERTY IN TANZANIA:
Poverty is defined to include “Income” and “Non-Income” human development attributes. Characteristics of Income Poverty are in the rural areas incomes are lower and poverty is more widespread and deeper, poor are concentrated in subsistence agriculture, urban poverty is also widespread and increasing, the youth, a large households are more likely to be poor. Non Income Poverty compose of education (literacy rate) , Survival (mortality rates), Malnutrition among children, clean and safe drinking water, social well being and vulnerability. Causes of Income poverty are poor working tools and technology, non-availability of farm input, poor roads, limited access to market, adverse climate conditions and non availability of credits. For non income we have a high rate of illiteracy, poor quality and high dropout rates, involvement in health plans and programs in regards to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and high rates of morbidity and mortality.
The depth and extent of poverty is still high with 50% of the population living below poverty line (ibid). The task of reducing poverty and improving the living standards of the Tanzanian population is huge. The rate of growth of national economy has not been high enough to generate the number of jobs required. That brings up the issue of the majority to enter into private sector in the form of entrepreneurship and small business, thus expanding the private and informal sector of the economy from 23.9% in 1971 to 79.6% in 1996. Given the fact that Tanzania is one of the most rapidly growing population and urbanizing
countries in Africa, with total population of 34.56 million people, annual population growth rate of 2.9% and urban population growth rate of 4.5% per annum (National census, 2002), the implications of this rapid population growth are enormous. Firstly, young people will shortly constitute two thirds of the country’s urban population. The entry into labour markets is expected to more than double, thus causing a further strain on already worsening unemployment situation. It is estimated that the number of new entrants to the labour force is between 600,000 and 700,000 annually, comparing unfavourably with the less than 300,000 new jobs that are created each year, most of them generated by informal sector (UNDP, 2003). According to the last labor force survey of 1991, the
unemployment rate was 10.6% (UNDP, 2002; Bureau of Statistics, 1999). The
retrenchment exercise and the collapsing of most state enterprises that have thrown most energetic people out of sustainable and reliable income all add to the problem of unemployment. It is the fact of the day that majority of retrenches remain in town trying to pursue other means of earning income. They resort to self-employment ventures in the form of entrepreneurship and small business.

Agricultural sector, according to official data, provides employment for four-fifth of the labor force. However, as both United Republic of Tanzania and World Bank admit, the performance of agricultural sector has been sluggish in the past decade and virtually stagnant. The levels of
agricultural growth achieved during the last decade are too low to pull the majority of the rural poor out of abject poverty. Instead, they serve to perpetuate the existing pervasive poverty among the farming communities (ibid). The cumulative resultant outcome is that the sector is unattractive especially to young people, and when lack of other social
services in rural areas are added, the rural-urban migration increases and reluctance of people to migrate from urban to rural areas becomes high. Secondly, the excessive population is expected to live in overcrowded slum and squatter settlements, characterized by inadequate infrastructure and services, low security system, thus harboring crime and violent practices. What is apparent is that the question of entrepreneurship, small business and crime in urban centers presents a long standing conundrum at least recently when there is high prevalence of poverty. The proliferation of crime has been fuelled by several issues including raising the level of unemployment and underemployment among young people

Conclusion
Population movements in Dar es Salaam vary in motivation and type. They can be voluntary, driven by tourism, regional trade, search for better economic conditions, and education. They can also be forced, caused by war among tribes, famine, drought, flooding, land expropriation, and major environmental catastrophes. But evidence shows that the main causes of rural to Dar es Salaam urban migrants is due to the problem of poverty in rural areas. Life in rural is unattractive especially to young people, and when lack of other social services in rural areas are added, the rural to Dar es Salaam urban migration increases and reluctance of people to migrate from urban to rural areas becomes high. The excessive population are overcrowded in a slum and squatter settlements, characterized by inadequate infrastructure and services, low security system, thus harboring crime and violent practices. What is apparent is that the question of entrepreneurship, small business and crime in urban centers presents a long standing conundrum at least recently when there is high prevalence of poverty. The proliferation of crime has been fuelled by several issues including raising the level of unemployment and underemployment among young people.




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