What we Are Reading: Arrival City by Doug Saunders

According to the statistics, over the next two decades, the number of city-dwellers in Africa is expected to double. Managing this immigration requires attention to certain elements that are key to arrival cities’ success. On a structural level, these include access to citizenship and formal land ownership, welfare services and employment assistance. If immigrants can buy land, whether or not they can leverage its value, plays a significant role in urban inclusion. The more upwardly mobile the residents, the sooner they move on to becoming contributors to the economy.

An excerpt from the book reads:
“We need to devote far more attention to these places, for they are not just the sites of potential conflict and violence but also the neighborhoods where the transition from poverty occurs, where the next middle class is forged, where the next generation’s dreams, movements, and governments are created.”

The book can be accessed here: http://arrivalcity.net/
The book is discussed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCEfo2yTFzs
And here: http://www.npr.org/2011/07/14/134770238/exploring-large-human-migrations-in-arrival-city