Migrant-Native Differences in Housing Quality: Manila, 1973

Abstract

Kingsley Davis (1975:85) concluded his recent analysis of Cities: Problems and Options with these words: Development without pros? perity, urbanization without opulence, without sophistication, without urbanity?that is apparently the path. Davis was reiterating the gloomy view, first expressed by him nearly two decades earlier (Davis and Golden, 1956), and now shared by many others, that the urbanization of Asia contributes little to its development, but instead adds to its already heavy burden of social, economic, and political problems. In this paper one aspect of that view, the adjustment of migrants, will be considered with respect to one social problem, housing, in one Asian nation, the Philippines. Obviously the scope of this paper is much narrower than Davis' argument, and is therefore not a test of it; but such focused studies, if repeated in a variety of settings, can inform us of the range of experience in Asian cities, helping at last to evaluate the fit between reality and the over-urbanization model. Before considering the problem of migrant housing in Manila, we will consider the general level and pace of urbanization in the Philippines, asking (as does Davis for all Asia) how they contribute to the problems of cities. For the Philippines data I draw upon the recently published and excellent work of Ernesto Pernia (1976a and 1976b). Pernia reports that in 1960 about 33 percent of the Philippine population lived in urban places. While that is higher than Davis' estimate of 26 percent urban for all Asia, it is not remarkably greater, and it is actually lower than the level of urbanization in other Asian nations with which the Philippines is sometimes compared, such as West Malaysia and the Republic of Korea. Of course, the Philippines' 33 percent urban is far below the developed countries' average of 68 percent. If the level of urbanization in the Philippines is not remarkably high by international standards, what about its pace? The proportion of the population in cities is not growing more rapidly in the Philippines than in other nations if contemporary Asia is taken as a standard. Davis estimates it took Asia's population 25 years (1950 to 1975) to increase the proportion urban from 15 percent to 27 percent; it took the Philippines about the same length of time to make the same jump?from 13 percent in