ABSTRACT
Rapid urban growth in the Middle East has put the city, as a physical and functional entity, under severe pressures. Resources and opportunities have proved inadequate to cope with the population influx and serious socio-economic problems have emerged. In the eyes of most planners and administrators the essence of the problem is the inability of the city to meet, in conventional terms, the need for employment and shelter. The large numbers employed in the tertiary or service sector, and housed in squatter settlements, are frequently cited in support of this argument. Almost inevitably, such problems are associated with migrants who are commonly considered to be marginal urban residents in all senses of the word – physically located on the city periphery, and tenuously linked to its economy and culture. As a consequence migrant communities are viewed with some suspicion by the authorities as politically unpredictable and unstable groups.
