It has been observed that intra-city migration in the world, from rural to urban is taking place, resulting in overpopulation of metropolitan cities. Although there are benefits to this in the form of cheap labor and repopulation of the devastated parts of the city, it has drawbacks as-well, destroying the environment and increasing competition.
Masses migrating to developed parts of the country can have several benefits. To commence with, the cities with more population means there is more chance of labor at lower rates. The population that is migrating from underdeveloped parts of other provinces is due to unavailability of resources in their native village, newly arrived people require minimum wages to survive, creating competition in the market. This competition can be beneficial for corporate sectors, and other organizations as they can acquire labor that are willing to work with little demands. To illustrate, younger people in the Czech Republic tend to move to bigger cities for opportunities, requiring enough money to survive, which provides local businesses with labor at lower rates. Another benefit can be to populate ghost areas of the cities. With the existing people saving enough to move to fancy parts of the city, few of the areas are left with little to no population. People that are looking for the job opportunities will opt for the abandoned homes, and not only can they rehabilitate these places, they will also maintain older structures, in few cases, which can be the heritage of the city. We can take example students that move abroad for studies tend to live in older construction to cover their expenses, maintaining the city’s look.
However, there are factors that cannot be ignored. The primary problem that can arise is environmental damage. Great number of people living at the same place requires a lot of resources as they are calculated, and in some cases, these can exceed the allocated resources for the city. With more resources being utilized at a single place at a faster pace, it can devastate the local environment of the city. Delhi being the prime example, where air quality has dropped to killing rates. Another factor that plays an equal part is the survival of the fittest. Presence of cheap labor may seem beneficial at the starting stage, but it can severely damage the previously present inhabitants of the city. The local men come in direct competition with new people ready to work at lower wages as it turns out to be an unhealthy cycle. To illustrate, people moving from Gharo to Thatta tend to work at lower wages, destroying the local labor market.
To conclude, people migration from underdeveloped to developed cities may provide local business with an edge and infrastructure maintenance, but it can also destroy the local environment and produce a distressing situation for local labor.