Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.5, 2015

 

Cairo’s Marginal Community under the Shadow of Urbanization

(Abstract)

 

Che Xiaomei and Li Jing

 

Having long suffered under colonial rule, Egypt won independence after World War Two. Urbanization began to accelerate and there was a large-scale shift of the agricultural labor force to the metropolis of Cairo. These rural migrants, however, failed to be fully absorbed into the city and became marginalized. As the city’s most vulnerable social group, lacking in political consciousness and without channels for their political demands, they had limited social interaction and found it hard to blend into urban culture. The formation of this marginal community derived from its special historical background. On the one hand, the legacy of colonialism and successive governments’ mistakes in urban policy and industrial development since independence have led to an imbalance between the pull of the city and its absorption capacity. On the other, the government’s land policies at different stages have failed to improve the lot of those at the bottom of rural society; rather, the implementation of privatization has widened the urban-rural gap. After moving to town, rural migrants seeking a better life find their expectations frustrated; their culture is constantly in conflict with that of the city, and there is no outlet for their group interests, so that they become a potential source of trouble affecting urban stability.