This briefing presents an overview of how rural to urban migration (internal migration) impacts on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular Goals 8 and 11. Despite the positive impact that internal migration can have on urban migrants, their families, and their 'host' city, urban migrants are often neglected in government policies. This briefing therefore presents a number of policy recommendations which aim to capture this potential and contribute to achieving the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.

Key messages

• Rapid urbanisation in developing countries is a defining feature of the 21st century, driven by internal migration and population growth. How urbanisation is managed by both city and national policy-makers, and the types of livelihoods that migrants can access in the city, are crucial to achieving the SDGs, in particular Goals 8 and 11.
• Rural to urban migration has the potential to improve the livelihoods of urban migrants and their families, and contribute to poverty reduction. Internal migration opens up new job opportunities and can improve the living standards of those who remain behind through remittances and non-financial transfers, such as improved knowledge and skills.
• Despite their potential, internal migrants are often neglected in government policies. Poor, urban migrants often end up working in the informal sector, lacking access to social protection and basic services. Few cities have coherent regulations and policies on the informal sector.
• Policies should support decent job creation and entrepreneurship, improve work standards, and provide protection and assistance in cases of abuse to strengthen the opportunities available to new arrivals.
• National and local policies that seek to curb rural to urban migration on the basis that it increases urban poverty are problematic, and largely based on a crude measure of poverty that fails to capture the reality of migration dynamics.

This is the third of a series of policy briefs on the relationship between migration and the UN Agenda 2030 for SDGs.

Policy Brief by the Overseas Development Institute