Arrival City: The Final Migration and Our Next World

By Doug Saunders

From one of Canada's leading journalists comes a major book about how the movement of populations from rural to urban areas on the margins is reshaping our world. These transitional spaces are where the next great economic and cultural boom will be born, or where the great explosion of violence will occur. The difference depends on our ability to notice.

The twenty-first century is going to be remembered for the great, and final, shift of human populations out of rural, agricultural life into cities. The movement engages an unprecedented number of people, perhaps a third of the world's population, and will affect almost everyone in tangible ways. The last human movement of this size and scope, and the changes it will bring to family life, from large agrarian families to small urban ones, will put an end to the major theme of human history: continuous population growth.

Arrival City offers a detailed tour of the key places of the "final migration" and explores the possibilities and pitfalls inherent in the developing new world order. From villages in China, India, Bangladesh and Poland to the international cities of the world, Doug Saunders portrays a diverse group of people as they struggle to make the transition, and in telling the story of their journeys — and the history of their often multi-generational families enmeshed in the struggle of transition — gives an often surprising sense of what factors aid in the creation of a stable, productive community.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 21, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307376084

Reviews for Arrival City

[abycats_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thought provoking nonfiction about the value and need for what first appear to be slums surrounding the huge urban centers of the third world. This is one that's stuck with me.

[snuffypots · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is so well written I couldn't put it down. Everyone should read this book. No one can stop the flow of immigration. All you can do is insure that the immigrants have the best possible social services possible. They are our future tax payers who are going to pay for your medicare and social security.

[rakerman_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A very interesting perspective on how rural to urban migration is transforming cities and the world. The author shares often non-intuitive deas about how both the built urban form and government policy can contribute to making these "arrival cities" succeed or fail. The consequences of failed arrival cities are often violence and extremism, all the more tragic as Saunders asserts most of the inhabitants simply want the ability to step up the economic ladder, that neither their cultures nor their economic conditions predispose them to violence; instead it's physical, cultural and economic isolation from the mainstream of the societies they're trying to join that creates an unstable situation. It reminded me in a way of how in Peter Heather's conception the Romans were unable to understand what were essentially economic migrants wanting to join the mainstream of Roman society, instead casting them out and ultimately leading to their own downfall.It's interesting that many of the conclusions about the best built urban form for the arrival that Saunders documents - 5 storey buildings densely packed, with ground-level retail and flexible zoning, are the same prescriptions for general urban vibrancy that Jan Gehl puts forward based on his years of experience, in Cities for People.