Not all historians and urban planners agree that La Violencia was the primary reason for the mass migration of people into Bogota during the 1950s and 60s. Other theories include the economic growth that took place after World War II, urban and industrial development and rapid demographic growth.
Urban theorists identify causes of migration as "push" factors and "pull" factors. Push factors are those which cause people to migrate because of bad conditions in their original destinations, primarily the disintegration of rural society.
"Pull" factors are those which cause people to migrate because of the good conditions where they are going. While these concepts may overlap, it is a basic scheme for understanding rural to urban migration.
Urban sociologist Manuel Castelles maintains that, in developing countries, rates of industrialization have not kept up with rates of urbanization, resulting in a pattern of urbanization that is not equivalent to that of developed nations. Migrants are "pushed" to the cities rather than "pulled," which explains this disparity.
Castelles also says that these "pulled" migrants never fully integrate into the structures of the city. They lack a funciton within the urban society, and thus, while residing in the city, are not really a part of its structure.
Bogota has not experienced a rate of industrialization equivalent to the rate of urbanization. The formal economy has not absorbed the migrants to the city, who continue to exist in what is dubbed the "informal sector;" the collection of ways to make a living outside the legal economy.
Accepting Castelles' theory, the marginal status of the majority of people living in squatter settlements throughout Bogota would indicate they were "pushed" from the country rather than "pulled" by the city.
While there is no conclusive evidence as to the reasons migrants came to Bogota during the 1950s and 60s, there does seem to be substantial cause to believe it is related to the violence in rural areas, a central cause of the disintegration of rural society.
Other Reasons for Migration/Geography, Macalester/jbruland@macalester.edu
