Towards Millennium Development Goals. Migration and Poverty Reproduction in Rural Places. Cases of the Chaco Region - Argentina.

NUSSBAUMER, BEATRIZ

Achieving the MDGs - A multidisciplinary perspective

Shaker Verlag

Lugar: Aachen - Alemania; Año: 2005; p. 55 - 75

The rural-urban migration is an observed world-wide phenomenon. However, consequences of this process are almost analysed through the lens of the urban problematic such as unemployment and increasing marginality in the cities. Lesser is investigated the impact of migration, i.e. population exodus, on the rural side which is the main objective of this study. Firstly, regarding economic and environmental issues, labour shortage is considered a direct consequence of migration, which might negatively affect the maintenance of farming systems both in scale and in diversity. This weakens social reproduction strategies that lead to poverty reproduction in the rural areas. In this sense, it is proposed that migration might contribute to poverty reproduction in rural areas. Secondly, migration might disrupt social networks and hence the potential of social development by means of diminishing the existing social capital. Finally, it is considered that migration affects rural culture, by means of both introducing urban patterns as well as affecting the generational transmission of knowledge and sustainable farming practices based on local specific culture-nature interactions.