ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the causes of labour migration, J. C. Mitchell distinguished between 'centripetal' and 'centrifugal' forces which operate in different combinations to direct the flow of rural-urban migration in particular areas and to determine whether or not it is circulatory. The unemployment was not a factor of significance in the model of migratory causes proposed by Mitchell. The 'problem' of unemployment has of course become a political issue in newly independent African countries so that the definition of what constitutes unemployment may now seem on the surface more clear-cut than it really is. From the observational view, the politics of unemployment does seem to underlie many contemporary urban social processes in Africa, frequently along ethnic or national lines of conflict. The main source of the cleavage is a diminishing pool of employment in Nairobi relative to the numbers seeking it, and an associated scarcity of housing.
