Urban Poverty
Immigration and immigrants
Causes of Poverty
Implications of Poverty
Issues in Poverty
Eradication Programs
Case Studies in Advanced
and Developing Countries
started off with people tied with agriculture surplus > sustain themselves > becomes permanent market place
migration: movement of people within national boundaries
immigration: movement of people across national boundaries
traditional immigrants: people who applied permanent entry into other nations
permanent entry depends on friends/ family in host country to:
- support them financially
- to help in the legal process
- The continuation of immigration stem from the first generations and replenished by new arrival over time
- immigrants with advanced skills move into professional and middle class economic immigrants
Immigration of advanced
and developing countries
Advanced countries
- migration rural to urban = time with industrialization
Developing countries
- migration from rural occurs despite unemployment in urban
- based on expectation of higher income in urban due to poverty
- migration problem is viewed as poverty in rural, of lack of development leads to uncoordinated influx in large cities
- caused inability to assimilate newcomers and create slums and urban poverty
- urban problems include increased crime, congestion, disease, pollution
Defined as annual income for a family of four
- measured directly by social indicators of well-being
India: expenditure required by average household to meet specified minimum nutritional norm measure (calories)
The poor suffers from:
- isolation in depopulated wasteland
- economic distress
- high level of unemployment
- high rates of single parenthood
- gangs and violence
- widespread drug and alcohol use
Poverty is measured by:
- proportion living below 50% of national median income
- percentage of people live below 60 years old
- percentage illiteracy between 16-65 years old
- long term unemployment in the labor force
Increase in poverty due to:
- major flight to suburb
- an influx of poor migrants and immigrants
- shift of economy to professional from manufacturing
- uneven development
Comparable measures of poverty from quality of life
- availability of adequate housing
- healthcare
- potable water
- level of infant mortality
Absolute term poverty: fixed level of income
Relative poverty: comparison of individual situation, disadvantaged and history
Causes of poverty
- easy installment plan
- household debt is higher than income
- youth employment is higher than total unemployment
- lower child level of education compared to parents
Main characteristics of poverty
-
- Live in a cramped, overcrowded and unsanitary condition
- heavily dependent on labor market - rely on labor and human resources
- limited asset, livelihood security depends on income and employment
- highly dependent on public bodies to supply good and services
- lack of community and family support (financially)
- violence in the neighbourhood - additional vulnerabilities to women, elderly, child, and disabled
- excluded from safety and security
- residential segregation (ghetto and racial segregation
3 category of vulnerability of urban household
- Coping: have asset but unable to meet basic needs, need help to get out of poverty
- Improving; has income, skills to expand economic opportunity - invest in children education
- Declining - experience multiple vulnerabilities at the same time. ie poor health, family breakdown, disable
To individual:
- food and beverages
- gross rent, fuel, power
- medical care and health expenses
- transport and communication
To urban society:
- inequality in wealthy and poor
- unequal distribution of resources, people, wealth
- social polarization: reducing in the dual population - one is increasingly affluent and low-level service jobs
- changes in state benefits compared to labor market earnings
- rapid urbanization and structural urban transformation
- Different rate of earning of different occupational groups
- changes in household composition
- level of unemployment
- increase in paid work by married woman (women RTW)
- changing balance in manufacturing and service sector employment
Main issues to address
- poverty fluctuation, dynamic
- focus to all categories of poor - each category have different needs
- high cost of poverty eradication programs
- misappropriation of poverty relief
Social Development
and Social Protection
Social development programs
- programs to support working parents
- support aging population
- facilitate adaptation of rural migrants to cities
- integrating disabled into the society
Social Protection
Represent a range of activities for poor household to:
- ensure improving condition against reversal fortune
- protect the coping against the risk
- provide safety net for declining household
Social insurance
- social security
- financed by contribution to protect from risks SOCSO
- health insurance by CUEPACSCARE
- crop insurance
Social assistance
- educational/ training assistance
- transfer the resources to the poor
- tax relief, subsidies
- free medical services
- employment support
- COLA
Urban poverty scenario in Malaysia
- education reduce poverty
- labor intensive activities reduce poverty
- higher number of child under 15 increase poverty
- higher risk among foreign worker
- Chinese is not poor
- No gender discrimination
in United State
- most will spend at least 1 year below PLI in year 25 - 75
- measure poverty using threshold, recognise poverty as lack of goods, services commonly taken for granted by members of mainstream society
Factors of poverty
- income has high correlation with education
- job lost
- income level vary with age
- dispute relationship between tax rates and poverty
Common policies related
to urban poverty
- migrant workers in urban
- urban elderly policies
- social support for retirement
- educational subsidies for urban poor
- increase tax relief