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Thesis (Ph.D.). / Written for the Dept. of Anthropology. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/08/04). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Rutgers. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1966. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Yale University. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 366-383).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1981. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-86).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-157).

Rural-urban migration is fundamentally a demographic phenomenon. It should be also open to analysis at the level of individual decision making as well as the demographic level so common in the literature. The individual acts or operates within a social and physical environment. He perceives some of the information available to him concerning the various dimensions of his environment. He acts with reference to his perception and his manipulation of that information. An observer cannot directly perceive the process of a West African making decisions. However he could note relevant information which may be available to a migrant. The observer could then note the migrant's actions. From these two sets of data the observer might surmise about the intermediate decision making process. This might be called the Information-decision-action perspective. From this perspective of the individual level a set of axioms can be constructed to generate a number of hypotheses concerning migration. Available literature on rural-urban migration in Africa, plus some from other geographic areas for comparison, is examined with respect to the hypotheses generated. As most of the data refer to overall movements, a certain transformation of the data is required to make them useful to the individual level of analysis attempted in this thesis. Most of the source data support the four categories of hypotheses I have developed but a few notable exceptions provide a useful reexamination of the formal approach of this thesis. After outlining the perspective and applying it to migration literature I turned to study a localised setting in West Africa. The ethnographic environment of Kwawu migrants is described from census data and personal recollection. The social and physical environments of the Kwawu traditional area and of Accra, the capital city to which most Kwawu migrate are described as information available to a hypothetical individual. This is followed by an example of a particular individual in a transitory state. The aggregate data related to the differential migration of Kwawu are examined and a demonstration model is generated from the Information-decision-action perspective to indicate the extent to which this approach is predictive. The individual's decision making process, or Information-decision-action perspective is outlined in Chapter One and is related in Chapter Two to relevant literature. Chapters Three, Four, and Five parallel the Information-decision-action perspective; Chapter Three deals with Kwawu ethnographic information; Chapter Four is a description of one Kwawu individual's decisions; and Chapter Five relates the resulting actions of Kwawu migrants. The problems of relating aggregate data to individual experiences and the problems of integrating personal and library sources of information are briefly examined in a summary chapter. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

Rural-urban migration in Nigeria is the cause of a number of problems; the problems of overcrowding and deterioration of the urban environment associated with rapid urban growth; the economic loss resulting from the high unemployment rates in urban areas; and the problem of adverse implications of prolonged periods of frustration among the urban, poor. Nigerian governments .recognize that rural-urban migration calls for more effective policies than those attempted in the past. In this context new approaches designed to foster greater understanding of the nature of this process and more effective policies should be helpful. This thesis proceeds on the premise that rural-urban migration is in reality a process within a complex socio-economic system consisting of many interacting components and significant feed-back effects. It is thus held that a General Systems Approach provides an appropriate and useful analytical framework for the study of this process. In addition to bringing a broader perspective to the analysis, a systems framework is a powerful tool for exploratory research and therefore well suited both to the promotion of a greater understanding of the process and for the generation of a number of initial policy considerations. Relying on material from existing literature and personal experience related to the process in south-eastern Nigeria, a model of rural-urban . migration is developed in Chapter 4 (Figures 4.1 and 4.2), and applied in Chapter 5 to derive a series of testable hypotheses related to the migration process. The methodology is demonstrative of a systematic procedure for generating a series of interrelated potential policies for shaping the process. The main thrust of the work is to develop a conceptual systems model of the rural-urban migration process and thus to lay a foundation for further, substantive research on rural-urban migration in Nigeria. In the concluding chapter, some directions for this future research have been sketched. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate