To complete Brasília in the small amount of time Kubitschek had, he needed huge numbers of laborers. The original intent was for these workers to come to Brasília, build the city, and then return to their homelands. Workers arriving in Brasília found good work and great salaries, and lived a much better life than ever before. All of the workers lived together in construction camps, alongside urban planners, architects, government officials and military personel. All of these men worked together, ate together, and socialized together, which gave these construction camps a very egalitarian feeling to them.
These workers who found better conditions than they had left at home called their families to follow them to Brasília. At first, these families lived in shanty towns and squatter settlements. The government legalized some of these towns, which were turned into satellite towns. Settlements that were very close to the Pilot Plan were usually not allowed to remain. The government wanted to keep satellite towns far from the Pilot Plan for two reasons. The first reason was simply sanitary, the planners wanted to keep a clean water supply for the Pilot Plan. The Pilot Plan was built with only 2 sewage treatment plants, which was a device used to control the population within the Plan. Secondly, planners wanted to keep the idea of the Pilot Plan pure by keeping out substandard housing and symbols of poverty.
Brazilian geographer Aldo Paviani identified 5 different types of migrants to Brasília.
The amount of migration to Brasília in any given year is highly dependant on three factors. The amount of construction going on in and around the Pilot Plan is the major pull factor of migrants to Brasília. The condition of the migrant's homeland, and factors like flooding or draught are major push factors forcing migrants to Brasília. Finally, feedpack from prevous migrants to Brasília is a very important factor in a person's decision to migrate to the city.
The current population of Brasília and the surrounding satellite towns is about 1.6 million people. The government is now trying to limit the population and attempting to extend some basic public services to the satellite towns. The government currently has a few plans for increasing the quality of living around the Pilot Plan. Underemployed and unemployed residents are now being offered free bus tickets to return to their place of origin. By moving some people away from the satellite town, the government is attempting to ease the stress put on overburdened services in the satellite towns. The government is also planning to build a metro to serve many of the satellite towns so that transportation to and from the Pilot Plan would be more readily available to all residents of the Federal District. Finally, the government is ready to officialize an expansion plan which would bring poorer residents closer to the Pilot Plan.(Wright and Turkienicz, 1988)
