Urbanisation
By Marjorie Henry, Contributor

Glenmuir High School sixth-formers, Jomain McKenzie (Headboy), Kerrie-Ann Cameron, Shanette Dempster, Peter Campbell and Kevin Williams, the 2006 CSEC all-island top performer, discuss a point of interest in one of their textbooks, during a break, on Wednesday, March 21. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

In the last lesson, I started to review urbanisation and the reasons for it in the Caribbean. In discussing the reasons, I shared that internal migration, in particular rural to urban, was responsible for the increasing number of city dwellers. There are two sets of factors involved, namely, push and pull. Existing problems that cause people to leave from the rural areas into the towns and cities are the push factors. These were highlighted in the lesson, last week. When people from the rural areas are attracted to the urban areas for varying reasons, then these become the pull factors. In today's lesson, I will share with you some of the pull factors.

Employment: One of the main attractions of towns is that they appear to offer better job opportunities. In addition, job opportunities in the towns tend to grow. This is because new manufacturing industries have been started in the major towns of the region, and so there are more factories that need workers.

Along with manufacturing, jobs are available in construction, retailing and service industries. Industrial estates such as the Free Zone in Jamaica and Point Lisas, Trinidad and Tobago, also provide areas of concentrated employment opportunity. Jobs in the city not only offer higher salaries, but are also more diverse. There is also a better chance of finding a second job in urban areas.

Social services: Cities and towns in the Caribbean have better social services than rural areas. Educational opportunities are better in the cities. Kingston has two of the largest university campuses in the Caribbean, and more than 10 other colleges. The university, teachers' college and community college campuses in Barbados are located near Bridgetown. The only tertiary institution in St. Lucia is located in Castries. Most of the larger towns in the Caribbean have modern hospitals. Many Caribbean countries have limited specialist health resources. Those specialised services that do exist are located in the capital city.

Utilities: Some rural areas do not have piped water supply, electricity and other basic services. Most urban households have these facilities.

Entertainment and recreation: Many people are attracted by opportunities for entertainment and recreation. Cities have less open space, but may have better sports facilities. The capital cities are usually the centre of entertainment activity.

The 'bright lights/big city' concept has lured many young people to Caribbean capital cities. Bridgetown, Kingston and Port-of-Spain are three of the 'party' capitals of the Caribbean. There are cinemas, nightclubs and opportunities to meet people.

Cost of goods and services: Prices are generally lower in the cities. The larger shopping malls, wholesalers and large supermarkets are in the city centres.

The Contemporary Caribbean written by Robert B. Potter et al, gives a statistical overview of Caribbean urbanisation. I will quote a small section from this overview.

'In common with other regions of the developing world, rapid urbanisation in the Caribbean has primarily occurred in the period since the Second World War. Although Caribbean towns and cities had their origins in the colonial administration and control of territories and the development of plantation agriculture, their rapid growth has resulted from the high rates of rural-to-urban migration that have been experienced since 1945. But this movement of population towards the opportunities offered by urban areas and urban labour markets has also served to swell rates of natural increase in urban populations. The twin 'push' of rural poverty and the 'pull' of socio-economic opportunities in the urban areas - both real and perceived - have thereby been causal.

Interestingly, data published by the United Nations (1980) show that the contemporary Caribbean is not only considerably more highly urbanised than the developing world taken as a whole; in fact, the region is more highly urbanised than the world in aggregate. This generalisation was true in 1960, when just in excess of one-third of the total population of the Caribbean region was classified as urban.'

An 'update' on urbanisation in the Caribbean is offered in the text, Geography for CSEC, written by Jeanette Ottley, et al. It states that -

'Some Caribbean cities are experiencing a decline in the number of people moving into the city. While people still visit the city for all the activities described above, many are moving to live in nearby rural areas. Counter-urbanisation is taking place. In Jamaica, St. Catherine has had an increase in population, while that in Kingston is decreasing. Over the past decade, many new residential developments have been created in parts of rural St. Catherine, and Portmore has expanded. The people in these communities moved there from Kingston, but still commute to and from the capital for work.'

In the next lesson, I will go on to the population growth in one capital city in the Caribbean.

The references used in addition to the two already mentioned are:

The Caribbean Environment by Mark Wilson and Principles of Geography for CXC by Norrel A. London, et al.

Marjorie Henry is a vice-principal at Glenmuir High School and is head of the Geography Department. She teaches the subject at the CSEC Level.