ABSTRACT
Reflecting on the anti-globalization discourse, J. Quah and K. Mahbubani commented that globalization has benefitted the emerging economies of Southeast Asia and has lifted millions of people out of poverty, but they recognize that it dislocates workers and industries and causes income disparities. Southeast Asia, like the rest of the world, is urbanizing, mainly due to rural-urban migration, but unlike in some other regions where rural-urban migration is a flight from drought, famine, or war, urbanization in Southeast Asia has run in lockstep with economic growth. Rural development and agricultural productivity gains play their part in rural poverty reduction, but urbanization has proven to be another pathway for rural poverty reduction. Households in rural villages act as safety nets for migrant workers, although the very poor and the landless remaining behind do not have much to offer to their relatives in the city who lose their income and employment.
