Convenor
Talbot Rogers
Lincoln Memorial University
Abstract
Migration plays a very crucial role in the process of urbanization. The role of migration in the context of social change and economic development has been noted by a number of scholars who have observed that large-scale migration, whether between nations or among different social and ecological zones of a single nation, have played an important role in social change Even though we have a number of studies on migration in the urban context, there are only a few studies critically examining the social issue related to migration. It is very important to study, besides the socio-economic background of the migrants, the nature of adjustment in the urban milieu. It is expected that the migrants would bring with them their own socio-cultural tradition, world view and behaviour pattern and naturally the socio-cultural implication of migration in the process of urbanization can be an interesting aspect of enquiry. Ethnic groups existed in the past, but now they have taken on a new significance in the post-colonial period as the developing nations of the world attempt to define their identity and the peoples within them claim certain rights on the basis of their belonging to a separate group. With increasing migration, there has been increased interaction between people from different cultural, linguistic and religious background.
In many countries, even in the pre-colonial and pre-industrial period, urban centers emerged and migration from various linguistic and cultural regions to the urban centers, forming into sub-cultural groups can be traced. It has also been observed that many regional linguistic groups have maintained the traditional norms and customs in the urban context and immigrants in the urban context tend to acquire an ethnic identity being segregated from the other older residence. It has been noted that in many cities many regional and linguistic groups exist maintaining the culture of their place to origin. The issue of multiple identities has been noted ; in the city, the migrants have many identities, in one context, one may identify by the social background, in another by language, and in a third by the larger region in which one resides. In this sense ethnicity is situational. It may be interesting to examine, whether the “assimilation” model evolved in the context of urbanization in the west, fits in the pluralistic urban societies of many other countries
panel presented by IUAES Commission on Urban Anthropology