International migrations and urbanisation: 1960-2010

Abstract

International migrations and urbanisation rates have seen a large increase in the last decades. Here we analyse the relationships between migrations and urbanisation by using a panel of ca 200 countries over the period 1960-2010. We describe the main global stylised facts on urbanisation and international migrations focusing on differences in these across world regions. We found that while there was a positive association between immigration and urbanisation, particularly in small and medium-sized cities, the association between emigration and urbanisation in developing countries was inverse. Both associations have become stronger over the few past decades, and our results highlight that international migration is an increasingly relevant and complementary dimension of the traditional rural-urban reallocation of workers which takes place during economic development.