UN marks extent of urban spread

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An unprecedented level of migration to cities is changing the face of the world, according to the United Nations.

More than half of the global population now live in urban areas and that figure may rise to two-thirds - or about six billion people - by 2050.

And the number of slum-dwellers is set to exceed one billion by next year.

The UN accepted there was a "brain drain" on poorer countries but noted that money sent home by migrants could exceed development aid or investment.

In 2005, the UN said, such remittances exceeded $230bn.

"It is a question of striking a balance," said Anna Tibaijuka, executive director of the UN Habitat think-tank.

Cities in flux

The UN also found that flows of migrants to cities could be a good thing, generating wealth and opportunity, but equally they could create tensions related to migrant integration, and be exploited by criminals.

People-smuggling, it said, could be a deadly business, as the plight of the people washing up on the shores of southern Europe or trying to get into the United States showed.

As for the slums, providing basic services like water, power and education to their inhabitants was, the UN said, one of the biggest challenges facing humanity in the 21st Century.

UN Habitat also zoomed in on several big cities:

<ul class="bulletList"><li>In Sao Paulo, a Brazilian city of 11 million people, about 200,000 "new immigrants" from Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru face dreadful, "slave-like" working conditions even for those with legal status; other city inhabitants, known as "Paulistanos", face enormous economic and social problems of their own so the needs of immigrants are sometimes ignored</li>

<li>The Thai capital Bangkok, population 10 million, has about one million immigrants, mostly unskilled workers from Cambodia, Burma and Laos, but also now North Koreans and Chinese; more than half do not have legal status and many live in unsanitary conditions, while some Thais regard them as disease-carriers, job-stealers and criminals</li>

<li>Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan with a population of 12 million, has suffered violence partly as a result of uncontrolled immigration; it has large Afghan, Bangladeshi and Burmese populations, and saw widespread inter-ethnic violence in the 1980s</li>

<li>Johannesburg, South Africa, has a reputation for being a xenophobic city where international migrants face constant police harassment, hostility from ordinary South Africans and difficulties finding employment; about a third of the 3.5 million residents were born outside the city and about 7% are migrants from abroad, mainly other African states. </li></ul>