Migration and development in South-East Asia: a demographic perspective

Population redistribution within countries, particularly the rapid growth of the larger cities in the Third World, has attracted in creasing attention as national governments and city administrations attempt to cope with burgeoning squatter communities, un employment, and the provision of housing, health, educational and other infrastructure. There have been other programmes designed to keep the population 'down on the farm', or to attract rural migrants by opening up frontier lands or agricultural settlement schemes, and regional development projects which seek to integrate the expansion of urban and rural employment opportunities.

This volume presents a series of migration studies utilizing the 1970 census round and sample surveys in Thailand, Malaysia, Singa pore, Indonesia and the Philippines. The first section of the book introduces the theme of migration and development, providing a perspective on the demographic and mobili ty transitions, and on the patterns of internal migration characteristic of the 'transitional" stage of modernization. This is followed by a series of country studies with the interwoven themes of general redistribution trends, mi gration to large cities or growth centres, the characteristics of migrants, and the interrela tionships of migration with social and eco nomic development and national planning. The final section focuses on national develop ment plans, urban planning, and land settle ment. The concluding chapter summarizes the major features of population redistribu tion and the main problems for planning, and indicates certain policy and research implications.

The editor was a Research Fellow in De mography at the Australian National Univer sity from 1973 to 1978; he is currently pur suing post-graduate studies in the United Faculty of Theology, Ormond College, Uni versity of Melbourne.