Urban poverty and its connection to internal migration: a sociological study of some of the inner-city neighbourhoods of Riyadh*

Abstract

This study deals with an important sociological aspect of the city of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. It analyses urban poverty in the old, slum (shaʿbī) neighbourhoods in the centre of the city, such as those affiliated to the municipality of ‘al-Baṭḥāʾ’ where families in these areas have witnessed an increase in numbers along with a decrease in income and an increased rate of illiteracy. The residents of these neighbourhoods generally live in small houses – on average, measuring 10 m deep by 5 m wide (50 m2). Riyadh, like other Saudi cities, is characterized by a capacity to attract; however, it is at the forefront of Saudi cities with regard to the size of its population which reached approximately 4.4 million inhabitants in 1422 AH/2002 CE. The number of families is expected to grow by an average rate of 7% over the next ten years to reach 941,000. Similarly, the average rate of population growth reached 8.1% for the five-year period beginning in 1417 AH/1999 CE; and Saudis exhibit a high rate of annual growth reaching 9.6% and representing 69% of the total urban population. This urban growth, in the main, is attributable to internal migration that ranks as one of the chief factors in the size of the population. A demographic survey in 1999 clarified through the use of the variable of ‘place of birth’ that the region of Riyadh was ranked the foremost in the region for attracting Saudis. Similarly, it was obvious from results of the pilot study (Alnuaim 1999) of ‘social adjustment to immigrants from rural areas’ carried out in the neighbourhood of ‘al-ʿŪd’ and that of ‘Manfūḥah’ that there were Saudi families which had immigrated from the south-west region of the country, six years previously or less, to the impoverished inner city neighbourhoods of Riyadh, and that these families suffered a reduced or lack of income in conjunction with their large family size. Similarly, they also suffered from increased rates of illiteracy among men, women and children altogether. This study, which is a completion of some previous sociological and exploratory studies, attempts to answer the following question. To what extent is recent internal migration to the city of Riyadh and residency in its slum neighbourhoods connected to the phenomenon of urban poverty in them?