Working Paper Series on Rural-Urban Interactions and Livelihood Strategies WORKING PAPER 15 Migration and small towns in Pakistan Arif Hasan with Mansoor Raza June 2009 ABOUT THE AUTHORS Arif Hasan is an architect/planner in private practice in Karachi, dealing with urban planning and development issues in general, and in Asia and Pakistan in particular. He has been involved with the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) since 1982 and is a founding member of the Urban Resource Centre (URC) in Karachi, whose chairman he has been since its inception in 1989. He is currently on the board of several international journals and research organizations, including the Bangkok-based Asian Coalition for Housing Rights, and is a visiting fellow at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), UK. He is also a member of the India Committee of Honour for the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism. He has been a consultant and advisor to many local and foreign CBOs, national and international NGOs, and bilateral and multilateral donor agencies. He has taught at Pakistani and European universities, served on juries of international architectural and development competitions, and is the author of a number of books on development and planning in Asian cities in general and Karachi in particular. He has also received a number of awards for his work, which spans many countries. Address: Hasan & Associates, Architects and Planning Consultants, 37-D, Mohammad Ali Society, Karachi – 75350, Pakistan; e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]. Mansoor Raza is Deputy Director Disaster Management for the Church World Service – Pakistan/Afghanistan. He has worked at the Church World Service since 2002, overseeing disaster response activities and mitigation plans for Pakistan as well as more strategic, fundraising and managerial work. Prior to this he worked at the NGO Resource Center Karachi as a Field Coordinator, building the capacity of community-based NGOs and designing training packages for grassroots organizations. Address: House No: 42-H, Block 6, Dr, Mehmood Hussian Road PECHS Karachi, e-mail: [email protected]. © IIED 2009 Human Settlements Programme International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) 3 Endsleigh Street London WC1H 0DD, UK Tel: 44 20 7388 2117 (international); 020 7388 2117 (UK) Fax: 44 20 7388 2826 (international); 020 7388 2826 (UK) ISBN: 978-1-84369-734-3 This paper can be downloaded free of charge from http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o= 10570IIED. A printed version of this paper is also available from Earthprint for US$20 (www.earthprint.com) ii Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge the NGOs/CBOs who helped them in their respective towns. These are: 1. Thardeep Rural Development Project in Mithi 2. Conservation and Rehabilitation Centre in Uch 3. Nazir Ahmad Wattoo of Anujman Samaji Behbood, Faisalabad for having arrangements and identified people for the visit to Chiniot. This paper was prepared with financial support from the Swedish International Development Corporation Agency (Sida) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (Danida). Please note that the views expressed in this publication are those of the authors only. iii Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1 The Pakistan context....................................................................................................... 2 1.1 The political context .................................................................................................... 2 1.2 The geographic setting, sociology and migration........................................................ 8 2 Migration to Pakistan..................................................................................................... 10 2.1 Development of the Punjab canal colonies ............................................................... 10 2.2 The 1947 migration from India .................................................................................. 12 2.3 Migration as a result of the Indo-Pakistan wars ........................................................ 14 2.4 Migration as a result of the Afghan conflict ............................................................... 16 2.5 Bangladeshi and Burmese migrants ......................................................................... 17 3 Rural–urban migration................................................................................................... 18 3.1 Scale of migration ..................................................................................................... 18 3.2 Causes of migration.................................................................................................. 19 3.3 The process of migration........................................................................................... 21 3.4 The physical impact .................................................................................................. 24 3.5 The social impact ...................................................................................................... 25 3.6 The political impact ................................................................................................... 26 4 Emigration..................................................................................................................... 27 4.1 History ....................................................................................................................... 27 4.2 Causes of emigration ................................................................................................ 28 4.3 Scale and destination................................................................................................ 30 4.4 Remittances and the national economy .................................................................... 31 4.5 The socioeconomic impact of remittances ................................................................ 32 4.6 Emigrant organizations and socioeconomic development ........................................ 35 4.7 Emigration and remittance processes....................................................................... 38 4.8 The response of the state ......................................................................................... 41 5 Small towns in Pakistan ................................................................................................ 41 5.1 The history of small towns in the Indus Valley .......................................................... 41 5.2 Demographic change and small towns ..................................................................... 43 6 Three small towns......................................................................................................... 44 6.1 Selection and overview ............................................................................................. 44 6.2 Mithi........................................................................................................................... 45 6.3 Uch............................................................................................................................ 50 6.4 Chiniot ....................................................................................................................... 57 7 Broad conclusions......................................................................................................... 62 iv Appendices 1: Interviews 1-36 64 2. Maps Map 1: Political divisions of Pakistan 106 Map 2: Geographical divisions of Pakistan 106 Map 3: Ecological regions of Pakistan 107 Map 4: Urban settlements in Pakistan 107 Map 5: Locations of the case study towns – Uch, Mithi and Chiniot 108 Map 6: Urban places in Pakistan 109 3: Tables Table 1: Pakistan: population size, rural – urban ratio and growth rate, 1901-1998 110 Table 2: Physical conditions: Pakistan 110 Table 3: Karachi: demographic change due to partition 111 Table 4: Languages spoken: Pakistan/ Provinces 111 Table 5: Migrant population by place of previous residence: Pakistan: 1981 and 112 1998 Table 6: Migrant population by place of birth: 1998 census 114 Table 7: Migrant population by reason of migration: 1998 census (%) 115 Table 8: Migrants status of population in the urban areas of Pakistan and provinces: 116 1981 – 98 (in thousands) Table 9: Sources of urban growth (%) 116 Table 10: Number of Pakistani emigrants: 1971 – January 2007 117 Table 11: Countries of destination 118 Table 12: Development in economic growth and worker’s remittances 119 Table 13: Urban population distribution 1951 – 1998 (by size of urban places) 120 Table 14: Pakistan: urban localities – population and growth 1951 - 1998 121 Table 15: Cities of different sizes (numbers) 123 Table 16: Mitthi Taluka (Sub-District); Selected Socio-economic indicators 1981 and 124 1998 Table 17: Ahmad Pur Tehsil (Sub-District); Selected socio-economic indicators 125 1981 and 1998 Table 18: Chiniot Tehsil (Sub-District); Selected socio-economic indicators 1981 126 and 1998 Table 19: Number of television licenses by district 127 Table 20: Health facilities Bahawalpur, Jhang and Tharparkar districts 128 Table 21: 1998 Person per facility in the three districts 129 v 4. Boxes 1: The making of the Punjab canal colonies 11 2: Interview with Mushtaq Ahmed: the Karachi connection 15 3: Migration back from Mazharabad to Khunda village 20 4: Interview