Many people today are leaving the small villages and countryside to move to the city. Give reasons for doing this and give the problems that this may cause.

The principal reason for

this

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movement is economic. Agricultural work in the countryside tends to be seasonal, poorly paid and increasingly mechanised, which leaves young people with few prospects. Metropolitan areas,

by contrast

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, offer a diverse labour market with the realistic hope of a stable income. In Morocco,

for instance

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, thousands of young men from the Rif region have moved to Casablanca over the past decade to take up factory jobs that simply do not exist at home. Education is another key reason for moving. Provincial towns rarely have universities, so families who want their children to obtain a degree have little choice but to relocate.

Consequently

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, migration becomes a rational investment in the next generation rather than a mere lifestyle preference.

Nevertheless

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,

this

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influx creates serious difficulties for the cities that receive it. The most visible is a shortage of affordable housing, as construction cannot keep pace with population growth. Tangier,

for example

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, illustrates

this

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clearly. Informal settlements have spread rapidly along its outskirts, often lacking clean water, sanitation and secure tenure.

Moreover

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, because newcomers typically arrive without the skills urban employers demand, many end up unemployed or in precarious informal work.

As a result

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, a growing underclass becomes concentrated in overcrowded districts, where poverty and crime reinforce one another. The villages left behind suffer too, as they lose their young workforce and are left with an ageing population and shrinking local economies.