ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information about the setting and conditions which have affected the migration and employment characteristics of the several study cities. The population of both Indonesia and the Philippines, as is so for all Third World nations, is predominantly rural. Nearly four-fifths of the Indonesian population and two-thirds of that in the Philippines live in rural areas. For Indonesia the reliable assessment of this question has come from a World Bank study which demonstrated that the greatest increases in average monthly household consumption expenditure between 1970 and 1976 were in the urban areas, especially those of Java. Indonesia is politically divided into 26 provinces. While the primary political subdivisions in the Philippines are also called provinces, such areas are much smaller than those in Indonesia. The central Visayas region is more aptly described as a “lagging” region because there are so few opportunities in rural areas.
