THESIS Date 0-7639 all¢~.‘="l .[ \l/ Willi!!!III/HUIIIIHIIIIIIHI!”Hill/NIH!IIIIWIIW "‘3’ w: 3 1293 10529 7208 gm }: tr? '4 ' 2,311 3:35;: " U ' ' ' "- 7;: .. : 2 r. y .413; 1}, f ‘ ‘ I "U~.’. i‘. ' ? w . ~’-"'m Y; .4 4‘ ‘.~.‘ A .- This is to certify that the thesis entitled "Marginal Settlements in Tabriz." presented by Housain B. Aloochi has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for M.A. Sociology degree in @2” Major professor August 27, 1980 :4 . A\\\‘ ---\\\‘ n ‘ .4 (1" ' ”0“,!” . ' OVERDUE FINES : 25¢ per du per item RETURNIM LIBRARY MATERIALS: Place in book return to remove charge from circulation records MARGINAL SETTLEMENTS IN TABRIZ By Housain Banifatemeh Aloochi A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fullfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Scociology 1980 éf,4£=:i77/ ABSTRACT MARGINAL SETTLEMENTS IN TABRIZ By Housain Banifatemeh Aloochi This study was designed to explore, establish and a- nalyze the crucial dimensions characterizing the process of marginalization. It was conducted in the marginal set- tlements scattered on the outskirts of Tabriz, the second largest industrial center of Iran, during the summer of 1979. These marginal settlements have sprung up during the last decade due to a series of socio-economic and po— litical events which forced countless of poor and unskilled persons to migrate to the city in search of a livelihood. One hundred and sixty eight households were randomly selected from a master list compiled from data obtained from the Tabriz Central Statistical Department and a sur- vey conducted by Azarabadegan University. A structured in- terview conducted by specially trained interviewers was u— tilized to obtain the research data. These interviews were individually conducted with the head of each sampled house— hold. The duration of these interviews ranged anywhere from thirty minutes to one hour, with a mean of forty Housain Banifatemeh Aloochi minutes. In general. the major findings of this study support the position expounded by Perlman (1975) stating that mar- ginalization occurs when vast sectors of the population are excluded from the productive apparatus of the economy. To my brother, DAREUS'. Whose unceasing love, encouragement and support were vital to the completion of this thesis. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The researcher wishes to express his sincere appreci- ation to the following individuals for their assistance and encouragement during the preparation of this thesis. A special thank-you is extended to all the members of the Guidance Committee. The researcher is grateful to Dr. Christopher Sower for his guidance and support. Likewise, to Dr. Allan J. Beegle, whose direction, suggestions and encouragement eased the pain of trying moments. Also, to Dr. Donald W. Olmsted, for serving on the committee u— pon such short notice. A special tribute is extended to Dr. Richard Hill for his untiring dedication and active participation in the difficult pre—experimental or planning phase of this re- search. I thank Isa, whose continual support throughout this work served as a constant inspiration. Also, to Tabriz University for its financial support, and to those socio- logy students from the Social Science Department who par- ticipated as interviewers. Lastly, and most importantly, I thank my parents and my brother, Dareush, for their unceasing love and emotion- al support. iii PREFACE One of the most difficult tasks confronting most gra- duate students is that of selecting a major area of inter- est upon which to devote his or her time, energy and ef- fort, and which ultimately leads to a thesis or disserta— tion. Such a decision is frequently complicated by feel- ings of altruism and the genuine desire to conduct a re- search project which will in some way benefit humankind. After a long deliberation period, during which I weigh— ed such issues as my prior research interests, their compa- tibility with my long range life goals, and the actual feas- ibility of the project, I decided to conduct my research upon the marginal settlements in my native city of Tabriz, Iran. The rational for this decision is as follows: First, ever since I was a student at the University of Tabriz, I have had an interest in the marginal settlements which have sprung up around the city. My thesis provided the ideal opportunity to conduct a research concerning a long standing area of interest. Secondly,having been born and reared in said city, I am very familiar with the terrain, and other geographical features of the locale. More importantly, I know and un- derstand the folkways, mores, and norms of the people. Simply stated: my language is their language, my culture is their culture. iv TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION ..................................... STATEMENT OF PROBLEM ....................... REVIEW OF LITERATURE ............................. METHOD OF PROCEDURE .............................. Site Selection ......................... Formulating the Questionnaire. ......... Drawing the Sample ..................... Interviewing .......... . ................ Duration of Interview .................. INTERPRETATION OF FINDINGS ................. Family Composition and Relationships... Marriage ............................... Divorce ................................ Migration ........ . ..................... Employment. ..... . ...................... Education .............................. Housing ........ . ........ . .............. Leisure Time. .......................... SUMMARY AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS ......... APPENDIX A Demographic Questionnaire .............. APPENDIX B Migration and Employment Questionnaire. 22 2L; 25 27 28 33 36 in 55 66 68 76 79 86 87 vi Page APPENDIX C Housing and Loans Questionnaire ............. 96 APPENDIX D Leisure Time Questionnaire .................. 92 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................... 93 Table 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 LIST OF TABLES FAMILY COMPOSITION ......................... DISTRIBUTION OF THE SAMPLED HOUSEHOLDS ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF FAMILY MEMBERS.. POPULATION DISTRIBUTION ACCORDING TO AGE GROUP AMONG SAMPLED FAMILIES ............... AGE DISTRIBUTION OF MARRIED PEOPLE AMONG THE SAMPLED FAMILIES ....................... MARITAL STATUS OF SINGLE PEOPLE AMONG THE SAMPLED FAMILIES..... ............ . ......... DIVORCE PATTERNS AMONG THE SAMPLED FAMILIES REASONS FOR DIVORCE AMONG THE SAMPLED FAMI- LIES ....................................... PREVIOUS LOCATION OF SAMPLED FAMILIES ...... LAST OCCUPATION OF HEAD OF SAMPLED FAMILIES YEAR OF MIGRATION .......................... REASONS FOR MIGRATION ...................... SATISFACTION AFTER MIGRATION ............... REASONS FOR NOT GOING BACK TO THEIR PRE- VIOUS LOCATION FOR THOSE SATISFIED WITH MIGRATION ......... .... ..................... REASONS FOR WISHING TO RETURN TO THEIR PRE— VIOUS LOCATION FOR THOSE UNSATISFIED WITH MIGRATION .......... . ........ . .............. REASONS FOR RESIDING IN THE MARGINAL SECTOR DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYED PEOPLE BY SEX AND AGE IN THE SAMPLED FAMILIES ................ DISTRIBUTION OF FAMILIES BASED ON PERSONS EMPLOYED IN EACH FAMILY ..... . .............. vii 32 3A 35 37 39 42 43 All 45 A8 50 52 53 56 58 Table 18 19 20 21 22 23 25 26 27 28 29 viii REASONS FOR JOB DISSATISFACTION AMONG SAMPLED FAMILIES ........................... REASONS FOR JOB SATISFACTION AMONG SAMPLED FAMILIES. .......................... INCOME DISTRIBUTION ACCORDING TO AGE OF ALL EMPLOYED PEOPLE.. ...................... LOAN SOURCES ............................... LOAN MOTIVATION ............................ COMPARISON OF SCHOOL ENROLLMENT ............ MANNER OF ACQUIRING HOUSING IN MARGINAL AREAS....... ........ ... .................... METHOD OF ACQUIRING HOUSE CONSTRUCTION SITE.. ..................................... CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS USED IN BUILDING HOUSES...... ........... .. ........ . . ....... FACILITIES USED AMONG ALL THE SAMPLED FAMILIES... ................................ HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES ....................... USE OF LEISURE TIME AMONG SAMPLED FAMILIES. Page 60 61 62 64 65 67 69 7O 72 73 75 '77 INTRODUCTION Tabriz, the second largest city in Iran, and one of its former capitals, lies on a valley to the north of the long ridge of Mount Sahand. This valley opens out into a plain that slopes down gently to the northern end of Lake Rezaieh, forty-two miles to the west. By virtue of its si— tuation and its altitude of A,600 feet above sea level, Ta- briz has a very pleasant and agreeable summer climate, but the cold in winter is severe. The nearest points on the Soviet and Turkish frontiers are, respectively, 60 and 100 miles away from the city. Owing to its proximity to Rus- sia and Turkey, and to the fact that it is on an earth - quake zone, Tabriz has had a very eventful history. The name, "TABRIZ", has been popularly derived from "TAB—RIZ", which means in modern Persian, "FEVER—DISPELLINGT Its origin and etimology is more likely to be found in the much older Pahlavi roots, “TAP-RIZ" (or TAV-RIZ), signify- ing "CAUSING TO FLOW", which is a possible allusion. to the numerous springs of mineral water that rise on the slopes of Mount Sahand (Lockhart, 1960, p. 10). At the present time, Tabriz has a population of approx- imately 800,000, and is therefore, once again, the second largest city in Iran. It is as it has been for centuries, a most important administrative and commercial center, and 2 it seems destined to progress appreciably further now that the railroad from Tehran has been completed. Also, there is another railroad from Tabriz to Turkey and Russia where it links with the Turkish and Russian railway system. Tabriz has several good hotels and restaurants, as well as, a number of cinemas. Of the great monuments of the past, however, there remains only the ARC (the Masjid— Ali Shah) and the Blue MOsque. The ARC, which is 120 feet in height, is still a very impressive structure, not only because of its immense size, but also because of the sim— plicity of its lines and the superb quality of its brick- work. There are several important and large industries which are also located in Tabriz. These industries have added to the economic well—being of the city and have also served to propel an influx of potential laborers into the surrounding areas. These include a textile mill, a tractor factory, a car manufacturer, and a cigarette company, all which help to give Tabriz its distinctive features. Azarabadegan University, which is located in Tabriz, is another institution which gives the city an added advan- tage. STATEMENT QR PROBLEM The migration of rural population to the urban centers in underdeveloped countries takes place within the changing economic process which liberates manpower from the areas of subsistence agriculture and draws it into the money economy. But not all sectors of the economy absorb labor at an equal rate. Indeed, most rural migrants do not find stable, per- manent employment in cities. They tend, rather, towards the already disproportionately large tertiary sectors, that is, the trades and services, characterized by low producti- vity, low incomes, and high degrees of unemployment and un— deremployment. Contemporary process of urbanization, sim- ply transfers rural poverty to the urban areas. According to Stavenhagen, "The large cities of the third world are increasingly populated by marginal masses of unskilled, un— trained, underemployed and underpaid workers, who live in shantytowns and hovels without having sanitation, education, and urban services" (1975, p. 59). Statistically speaking, many countries that used to be agricultural nations have in recent decades become "urbani- zed". What this means actually is that the penetration of capitalism has uprooted millions of rural people, but has been unable to provide for them adequately in new integra- ted, economic and social structures. The nature of dependent Ll capitalist development , through the modernization of cer- tain branches of the economy and the further underemploy— ment of others, contributes to the increasing marginaliza- tion of the rural and urban population. The key point being emphasized here is that marginali- ty is not caused by poor housing conditions or by any cha- racteristic of individuals or groups, but by a form of so- ciety that has been rooted in the historical process of in— dustrialization and economic growth in the developing na— tions. "Marginalization is the consequence of a new model of development or 'underdevelopment‘ that has basic charac- teristics: the exclusion of vast sectors of the population from its main production apparatus" (Perlman, 1975, p.97). However, the general theoretical framework regarding the process of marginalization in third world countries can not be generalized and applied in every circumstance, "as the precapitalist modes of production and the time of incor- poration into the world market sometimes create a unique society” (Amin, 1976, p.350). Because of this, it is im- perative to clearly define the unique process of incorpora— tion of Iranian society into the world market. In Iran, the organization and relation of production was inspired by what Marx refered to as "Asiatic modes of production" (196A). Weber has termed this mode of produc- tion as patrimonialism (Gerth, 1946). Following the same path of analysis, Wittfogal refers to it as oriental despo- tism (I957). 5 Iranian society, then, with such a system of produc- tion, was faced with several socio-economic problems which were not solved rationally. This was due to the nature of these modes of production and the simultaneous expansion of international capitalism and colonial powers. As a result of this, Iran did not deveIOp independent bourgeois elements out of her commercial activities. At the start of the 19th Century, socio-economic struc- ture of Iran found itself next to two exploitative European empires, namely Czarist Russia in the north, and the British Empire in the south. In 1828, a war took place between Rus~ sia and Iran, and the Iranian army was defeated. As a re- sult of the Treaty of Turkmanchie, which ended said war, the land holders of Iran ended up loosing enormous amounts of valuable lands and the peasants working on them, as well as accepting Russian domination over their own "socio-economic" life. The Czar was given the right to interfere in Iranian court matters under the pretext of protecting the crown prince and the reigning Sultan. As soon as the Treaty of Turkmanchie was signed between Russia and Iran, it put Britain on the par with Russia in regards to the issues of domination over Iranian affairs. In subsequent periods, with the growth of capitalism in Europe and the dawn of the age of imperialism, Iran entered the era of foreign concessions. This was also the start of the age of foreign investment and the export of capital by im- perialist countries. Nevertheless, Iran never became a colo- ny. The reason for this could be the competition between 6 the two rival imperialist powers of Russia and Great Bri— tain, and their equal penetration during that time which did not allow them to occupy Iran as a colony. As a re— sult of these facts, Iran kept her official independence, and became a semicolony or buffer state (Jazani, 1979). During the first decade of the 19th Century, foreign companies were highly active in Iran. However, the great economic depression of 1932-1933 led to the flight of fo- reign capitalists from the country, with the exception of those in the oil industry. As a result, foreign consumer goods were not exported to Iran at the same rate as pre- viously. Therefore, the more backward and traditional sys- tems of production assumed a very significant role in the internal market. It also placed greater importance on the export of traditional commodities than on oil exports from which at this time, a relatively insignificant amount of in- come was produced by oil. As a result of the great depres- sion, foreign trade was brought under a state monOpoly in an attempt to stabilize the economy. After the constitutional revolution (1906), different kinds of parties arose and with the help of the new stabi— lized worker class, they started an opposition movement a- gainst the Pahlavi dynasty. However, the founder of the Pahlavi regime, Reza Shah, understood what was occuring and tried to impede the process of revolution, so he became a tyrannical despot, and implemented some basic reforms. The next process which was related to another important 7 event was the penetration of imperialists with the intention of finding new opportunities for market and investments out- lets which had been slowed after the great depression of 1932—33. This was yet another step in the process of the formation of Iran as a dependent capitalist society. The aforementioned process can be considered as the formative stages leading towards dependent capitalism in Iran. This culminates in the Shah's so called ”White Re— volution" or land reform (1962-63), which basically was con— ducted to create capitalist agricultural activity, the end result of which was the uprooting of peasants from their land, turning them into wage laborers. Prior to the White Revolution, there were several sub- divisions among rural people. The poorest class was the KHOSH NASHIN or the landless peasants. Since they did not own any land, they made their living by tilting the soil of the large land owners or the ARBAB. The landless peasants were economically dependent upon the ARBAB, which put them in a very vulnerable position. Although this system often led to exploitation, these landless peasants, nonetheless, had jobs and means of living so long as the old system was operating. The group of peasants called the KHORDEH MALEK, or small land holders, were not as poor as the KHOSH NASHIN. These peasants owned a portion of land which they cultivat~ ed as a means of earning a living and were, for the most part, self sufficient. 8 The Shah's White Revolution which was supposed to im- prove the lot of the rural people, only worsened the situa- tion of the KOSH NASHIN, the poorest of these. The govern— ment seized the land belonging to the ARBABS (the large land holders) under the pretext of redistributing it among the peasantry. However, not all peasants received a por - tion of these lands. Rather than distributing the land a— mong the landless peasants, it was portioned out only a— mong the small land holders. In short, the land reform left the KHOSH NASHIN in ,worsened position. Now, they were not only landless, but also jobless. To summarize, then, the Shah's White Revolution led to the collapse of Asiatic modes of production in rural a- reas, and facilitated the exploitation of the peasantry by the comprador bourgeoisie. This exploitation is mainly ef- fected in the form of various state charges and dues, al- though it often takes on numerous other forms. Among them are: peasant dealings in urban areas; forward buying; u- sury; and exploitation during commercial transactions. Fur- thermore, the revolution drastically altered the needs and expectations of the peasantry by exposing them to the pene- tration of a money economy and the collapse of Asiatic modes of production. After the land reform ended, the government made ano- ther disastrous attempt to increase the agricultural pro- duction of the country by fostering the formation of large collectives or cooperative farms on previously uncultivated 9 lands. In order to do this, the government confiscated a large track of arable land which was the winter grazing for Bedouin's herds. Because of climatic conditions, these no— mads have, for centuries, traveled north in the summer and south in the winter to find suitable grazing conditions for their herds. They had a summer grazing land which was hil- ly and unfit for agriculture, and a winter grazing land which had opposite properties. Since their winter grazing land was confiscated, they were forced to remain throughout the year in the southern lands. However, their herds could not adjust to the clima- tic conditions and they began to die. Rather than watching their animals die, many of these Bedouins opted to sell their herds to the slaughter houses. Left without a means of making a living, these nomad people migrated to the cities. Being poor and unskilled, many were unable to find jobs and consequently, they ended up living in the marginal sector. The basic tenet espoused in this thesis, then, is that the events and processes just described are more clearly understood and explained in light of the dependency model rather than by the traditional push—pull perspective. In short, the expansion of capitalism in Iran prompted the collapse of traditional modes of production and the adap- tion of a different urban economic structure. In turn, this created changes in the socio—economic and classical structure of Iranian society. This fact is supported by 10 Dos Santos (1966) who claims that: "Dependency is a con— ditioning situation whereby certain countries have their economies conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy" (cited in Cockcroft, et al., 1972, pp. 71- 73). To summarize, the peasantry lost its modes of produc- tion, and the availability of foreign finished products destroyed the local handicraft industry. Left with such limited means of making a livelihood, the only viable alter- native for this peasantry was to migrate from rural areas to small towns and from these small towns to central urban districts. Since the economies of the urban centers were unable to absorb this large influx of landless and unskilled workers, marginalization emerged. As Perlman states: "...It is precisely the superemposing of the new hegemonic or dominant forms of production on pre- viously existing archaic economic structures and the simultaneous coexistence of these that creates marginalization" (1975. p. 255). Using the dependency model and the penetration of ca— pitalism as a theoretical basis or foundation, the current researcher conducted an exploratory study of the marginal sectors surrounding the city of Tabriz. The study aimed at establishing and analysing the crucial dimensions characte- rizing the process of marginalization. hese are: 1) population characteristics (age distribution, po- pulation composition, sex distribution, marriage, and divorce) ll 2) Migration (migrant motivation, social and ecologi- cal origin and destination of migrants, reasons for migration) 3) Employment (type of occupation, income, unemploy— ment, job satisfaction and socio-economic expecta- tions) 4) Education (level of education and school attendance). 5) Leisure time (utilization of leisure time). Lastly, the researcher envisioned the current study as a necessary first or pilot phase upon which to design a more theoretically grounded and methodologically rigorous research leading to a Ph.D. dissertation. THE REVIEW OF LITERATURE MARGINALITY The concept of marginality refers to the general and all inclusive situation that exists when a group exists on the periphery of, has continuity with, has dependency upon, and deviates in certain socially normative patterns from, a more dominant group. From this point of view, for exam- ple, occupational categories can be used as a criterion to distinguish the marginal population from the dominant group. However, the general and theoretical perception of the li- terature is that marginality occurs between two groups. both of which can be categorically defined. The important factor is that the more dominant group does not absolutely maintain numerical superiority. Normally, the dominant group is larger than the marginal group, but there are em- pirically proven instances where the reverse has been ob- served (Green,l9A7, pp. 167-171). It has been said that the concept of the marginal man is rather vague and offers little of substantive value to modern sociology. Throughout most of recorded history, one can see many instances of people who have lived on the pe- riphery of one or two more dominant groups. The position of these marginal clusters in the existing social structure of a more dominant group, or groups, has generally created 12 1? J a certain amount of ambiguity. This ambiguity was often expressed through a variety of means, both overt and covert. Certainly, there have been examples of parallel cultures existing side by side without overt conflict, thereby pro- ducing a subsequent reduction of the ambiguity, but such e- xamples are scarce (Gillan, 19A8, pp. 337-3A7). There appears to be, however, no example of such pa— rallelism without some degree of covert conflict. The two sociologists credited with initially creating the conoep - tual framework of marginality and the marginal man are Ro— bert E. Park and Everett V. Stanquist. Park indicated that the marginal man may be found in a variety of conditions and locations. He defined marginal man as: "...a cultural hybrid, a man living and sharing intimately in the cultural life and traditions of two distinct people; never quite willing to break, even if he were permitted to do so, with his past and his traditions, and not quite accept- ed, because of racial prejudice, in the new soci— ety in which he now sought to find a place. He was a man on the margin of two cultures and two societies which never completely interpenetrated and fused" (1928, pp. 881—893). He further comments: The marginal man, as here conceived, is one whom fate has condemned to live in two societies and in two not merely different, but antagonistic cul- tures. Thus, the individual whose mother is a Jew and whose father is a gentile, is fatally condemned to grow up under the influence of two traditions. In that case, his mind is the crucible in which two different and refractor cultures may be said to melt and, either wholly or in part, fuse. One runs across individuals who are caught in this conflict of cultures in the most unlikely places (1928. pp- 373—374). With the above definitions in mind, it may be said 14 that Park severely restricted his concept of the marginal man by placing too much emphasis upon the biological and cultural hybrid, at the exclusion of similar structural configurations found throughout the segments of many so— cieties. Stanquist, on the other hand, places more emphasis upon the social psychological patterns indicative of this group when he wrote that marginal man is one who: ...Is passed in psychological uncertainty between two (or more) social worlds; reflecting in his soul the discords and harmonies, repulsions and attractions of these worlds, one of which is often 'dominant' over the other; within which membership is implicitly based upon birth or ancestry (race or nationality); and where exclusion removes the individual from a system of group relations (196A, pp- 327-345). Although Stanquist allowed for a much more extensive discussion of the marginal man theory, his work initially lacked a clear delineation of categorical organization, which would have placed his data into a consistent schema. Many of his thoughts concerned the psychological and so- cial—psychological processes that he felt to be unequally characteristics of the marginal man, using generalizations that were far too nebulous to allow for adequate empirical testing. Besides Park and Stanquist, two other approaches have been observed. First,xHughes wanted to be all inclu- sive. He felt the situation was indicative of all indi- viduals who lacked certain expected characteristics in so- cial situations. Levin has indicated thoughts similar to 15 that of Hughes, stating that when a barrier is created that prevents the attainment of a desired goal, then a marginal situation exists. In Simmel's opinion, the concept of marginality should be defined by reference to characteristics of a "stranger" individual with respect to other members of society. It was to this seminal piece of sociological work that Ro- bert Park referred in his later formulation of the margi— nal man concept. According to Wolff, Simmel first noted that: If wandering is the liberation from every given point in space, and thus the conceptual opposite to fixation at such a point, the sociological form of the "stranger" presents the unity of these two characteristics (1950, p. #01). At the onset, therfore, the stranger expresses, in appropriately a paradoxical form, the ambiguity of the so- cial milieu. He is not only the person who is present and thus somehow involved with others, but he is also at the same time somehow independent of them. Implied by this notion is the peculiarly sociological features of estrangement; the stranger's distance from o- thers is really an affirmation of his relationship to them. In this sense, marginality emerges as dimension of all so- cial relationships. For other sociologists, marginality has meanings and theoretical implications. Perlman defines marginality as follows: In Portuguese and Spanish, the very word "marginal" 16 has exceedingly derogatory connotations. "Un marginal" or "un elemento marginal: means a shiftless dangerous ne'er-do-well, usually as- sociated with the underworld of crime, violence drugs, and prostitution. This parallels a long standing tradition in America and Europe of cha- racterizing the poor as disreputable in one sense or another, "the dangerous classes", or "persons living in regions of squalor and woe” (1975, pp. 91-92; Unfortunately, the ideas about the marginality of the urban poor have not been confined to harmless stereotypes in the prevailing wisdom. On the contrary, these notions have been strengthened and perpetuated by the very public agencies that are responsible for shanty town policy. Perlman (1975) defines marginality with the following characteistics: an irregular agglomeration of subproleta- rians with no professional capacities, low living standards, illiteracy, messianism, promiscuity, alcoholism, the habit of going varefoot, superstition, and spiritualism, a lack of healthy recreation, a refuge for criminals and marginal types, and a spreader of parasites and contagious diseases. In light of these diverse implications of marginality, both for identifying the urban poor and for formulating po- licy, it is important to establish the defining factor in each of the five common usages(Perlman, 1975). 1) Location in squatter settlements} among those who focus on location, or the squatter settlements per se. are architects, planners, and housing authorities who consider the peripheral section of the city as marginal residents because of the sub-standard physical construc— tion, high density, lack of urban services and hygiene, 17 peripheral placement within the urban area, and illegal land.occupation. 2) Underclaes in economic occupational structure: The second use of the term associates marginality with the urban underclass, the jobless, or the unemployed — those who are precariously part of the labor force and market. According to James D. Cockcroft (I970), marginality and marginal underclasses are relatively new concepts that have their origin in the age old concern for the plight of the poor urban classes uprooted from rural subsistence by economic forces and subjected to the vicissitudes of life as "lumpen proletariat", and "surplus population" or as mem— bers of a reserve army of the unemployed. In this regard, Perlman, has a somewhat opposite percep- tion of the physical boundaries of the marginal sector and the attitudes of outsiders towards the marginal resident sector would be irrelevant. The determining characteristic is an economic—occupational one dealing with lack of work or with unstable low paying jobs which are not part of the mainstream economy and do not contribute to it. According to this occupational definition of marginality, people who live within the marginal sector but are employed in the dy- namic industrial sector of the economy would not be margi- nal; conversely, people living elsewhere who are off—jobbers would be included. 3) Migrants: newcomers, or different sub-cultures. s and the migratory experience. In this case, the key identifying point is newcomer status and the transition between traditional-rural and modern urban A) Racial or ethnic minorities: The definition of mar- ginality based on racial or ethnic minority status also requires the superior-inferior status differential. The major difference in this case is the ascribed ge- netic trait that is the determinant of in-group or out group participation, rather than an acquired or cultural trait. 5) Deviants: The final situation for which the term marginality is used involves individual deviants, whe- ther pathological or especially gifted and nonconformist. In the case of an artist, criminal, prophet, or revolu— tionary, marginality implies a lack of participation in the occupational, religious or political mainstream (Perlman, I975)- METHOD or Peocsoues This is the methodological foundation of a study of marginal residents and marginal settlements in Tabriz, con- ducted in 1979. This study focused on the nature of these marginal residents. Most of these families are illegal in- vaders of the land they live on; although they are merely small pieces of land without benefit of public services. What follows is a detailed description of methods used to conduct the study. The sampling procedures were devised for shanty town, located on top of a hill, without any te- lephone service, streets, public services and for which maps and directions were, for the most part, non-existant. The only available official information sources for the da- ta of this study were the enumeration of the marginal set— tlements being undertaken by the Central Statistics Depart- ment in 1977, and a survey conducted by the research de— partment in Tabriz University in 1978. This chapter briefly describes the step by step metho- dology and process for this study: 1) Site selection 2) Initial questionnaire construction 3) Sampling procedures A) Interviewing techniques SITE SELECTION Tabriz, with a population of approximately over 800,000 19 20 persons, is one of the biggest and most industrialized ci— K | ties in Iran. While the central city is growing very fast and lags in the provision of adequate city services due to the lack of rational planning, its surrounding suburbs and D 0 marginal residence ,e .tions are growing much faster than Y r '. the city itself. The fundamental cause of this cancerous -rowth can be found by taking into acount the historical process of rural-to—urban migration during the last decades. One of tne first steps of the study was to go to the Tabriz Statistical Department to discover how many families live on the marginal section. The information received from them revealed that there were 1,700 households living in the marginal section. This information was based on an enumeration conducted in 1977 by that department. A simi- lar survey was also conducted by Tabriz University's Research Department in 1978, that demostrated the accuracy of the prior enumeration conducted by the Statistical Department. I then asked for some information concerning the ecological condition of the marginal area. The evidence obtained spe— cified that the households are located at the northwest sector of the city. The northwest sector (the marginal section) of Tabriz is completely isolated from urban social and economic acti- vities. Because of the mountainous topography of the re— gion, flanked by MOUNT OAN EBNALI, the government did not Spend its limited resources on bringing public Services, such as running water and electricity to the area. The 21 task (for example, pumping running water up hill is diffi— cult and far too costly. Because of this, the area was un— inhabited for years. When the peasantry began its migration to the city as a result of the previously described conditions, they were faced with the problem of finding a place to live. Since they were unskilled and for the most part unable to afford living within the city proper, they invaded this uninhabit- able land and began building their domiciles at the foot of the hill, the closest available area to the city. As more and more peasants arrived, they too set up their residences at the base of the hill. Once all the land at the base of the hill was occupied, newcomers built their houses in a staircase—like fashion up the sides of the hill. FORMULATING THE QUESTIONNAIRE The initial item pool utilized in constructing the questionnaire was formulated by rational procedures. Based on his knowledge of the target population, the researcher created questions which would provide the desired data. A— mong these, the following are included: information about social structure of the marginal settlement, their culture, and socio economic goals. The researcher also utilized se- veral items from existing questionnaires to enhance the pool of items. Once the preliminary questionnaire was formulated, the researcher tested the instrument on a small sample of 22 marginal residents. The questionnaire was modified by dis- carding unnecessary items and rewording others (Refer to the appendix for a sample copy of the questionnaire). DRAWING THE SAMPLE A master list containing the names and addresses of the heads of the households located in the marginal sector was compiled from the data obtined form the Tabriz Central Statistical Department and the survey conducted by the A- zarabadegan University. According to these official sources there were 1,700 households located at the perephery of the city. Because of time and economic constraints, the re- searcher decided to limit the sample size to 10% of the total population. One hundred and seventy households were randomly select- ed from the master list. The selection criterion for in- clusion in the sample consisted of selecting every tenth household on the list. This procedure does not violate ran- domization because the master list was not compiled in al— phabetical order and consequently all members of the popu- lation had an equal chance of being selected. Although 170 households were selected, the final sample for the study consisted of 168 households. Two of the o- riginal 170 households could not be located. INTERVIEWING It was evident from the beginning that I could not ad— minister the 168 questionnaires single handedly. I went to the Sociology Department at the University of Tabriz. 23 since I graduated from the same department, to obtain help. This was facilitated because I already knew some of the students and professors in that department. I proposed my plan of study and requested technical aid. Eight students. five of whom I knew, volunteered to help me in administer- ing the questionnaire. First of all, I instructed them on how to fill out the questionnaire. I went over all the items, as well as, the type of information I wished to obtain or elicit from each item. The next day, we agreed to go to those marginal sec— tions in order to have some idea about their location. On the third day, we started to fill out the questionnaires. There was a total of nine interviewers, eight sociolo— gy students and myself. The interviewers were devided into three teams consisting of three members in each. Each of the three teams were responsible for completing fifty six questionnires. That is to say, each team had to interview fifty six households. There was a fairly high turn over rate among the inter- viewers, as the novelty of the experience wore off, and they realized the difficulty of the task facing them. The difficulty of the task is accentuated when one considers the limited accesibility of many of these households. As an interviewer, it is easy to become discouraged by look- ing to a household located on the top of a high hill, and thinking that one is supposed to walk up to the hill top. Aside from this, it was almost imperative to conduct most 24 of the interviews during weekends, in order to get infor- mation from those who worked day and night during weekdays. In this respect, it was very hard to ask interviewers to sacrifice their weekends and work in data collection. Upon first entering the respective households, inter- viewers were instructed to state their purpose briefly. Some of the residents were already aware of the study, so little explanation was necessary. Interviews were conduct- ed at the appropriately scheduled times in order to elimi- nate (or reduce) the likelyhood of absentees especially when households were economically dependent on the work of both the husbands and wives. However, in very few cases, we were forced to conduct our interviews with the oldest son or daughter of the household. The interviewers were very well received and the inter— viewing went even better than had been anticipated. In general, this was attributed to our prior conversations with local residents and in particular, the informal asso— ciation which interviewers had with the marginal residents. Lastly, it was due to native friendliness. Fortunately, most of the sampled families understood the items of the questionnaire, however, there were some that we had to ex- plain. Some of these explanations worked, but a few of the families did not understand them, and these were cata- gorized under the "unaswered section”. 2:111:13: The researcher did several things that insured and 25 facilitated the cooperation of the potential respondents. Several 1) 2) The to show began. maximum steps were followed: I got letters recommending my research work from significant auspices. These were from the office of urban planning, and the governor's office of A— zarbayejan province. These letters of recommenda- tion were mailed together to the respective res— pondents. Both letters stated the importance of the research for the city planners, as well as, for the well being of the marginal settlement. I also got a letter from the Sociology Department at Michigan State University, which verified that I am a graduate student in that department. This letter was signed by the graduate director of the Sociology Department. iBecause the people of the marginal settlement do not know English, said let- ter was translated into the Persian by an official institution in Tabriz. researcher had this third letter in his possession to the households before the interviewing session These two procedures enabled the researcher to gain cooperation from the respondents. DURATION Q: INTERVIEW Each interview took from half to one hour, with 40 mi— nutes being the mean interviewing time. Interviews conduc- ted with those who were literate took considerably more time because these persons had more to say on each item 26 and demanded greater explanations. Three quaters of the families interviewed were found at home, and interviewed on the first attempt. The remainder of the sample were interviewed on the second or third visit. It was interest- ing that some of the families wanted to be interviewed alone. This was due to the cultural and political orien- tation of these people. Eastern people do not want to ex— pose their historical and their personal background and feelings to any outsider. In general, the over all refusal rates were remarkably low among the respondants. A bigger problem was presented by the interviewers' arriving at the indicated dwellings to either find them closed up or the residents not at home. INTERPRETATION OF FINDINGS There were 1,700 households of marginal residents in and around Tabriz*. Most of these families had come from rural areas outside Tabriz or around other areas of Azar— bijan province. They are distinguishable form the city residents in ways which will be elaborated throughout this section of the paper. The major differences existing be- tween city residents and marginal people are the following. First of all, family size, composition and relationships change when going from rural-to—urban areas. The nuclear family is prevalent in the city whereas the extended fa- mily is most comon in the rural and marginal areas. Se- condly, women's status in rural society is more controlled by religion and traditions than it is in urban settings, because religion plays a more significant role in rural life. Rural people spend their leisure time in the mos- que: their family relationships are governed by strict re- ligious guidance; and they are resigned to accept a low standard of living because they believe that their reward will come in the after life. Lastly, education is much more de—emphasized in the rural areas than in the urban areas, making the penetration of new ideas or technology difficult. *According to the enumeration done by the Statistical De- partment of Tabriz, 1977: and a survey done by Tabriz Uni- versity, 1978. 27 28 FAMILY COMPOSITION AND RELATIONSHIPS Table 1 summarized the different types of families liv- ing in the marginal sector of Tabriz. The largest catego— ry was those families composed of the husband, wife and the children. One hundred and nineteen, or 70.8% of the total sample, was of this type. The next largest family ntype was the extended family which consisted of 29 housholds or 17.2%. These two categories comprised 88% of the sample. The remaining 12% was devided among the other categories. The number of children in the marginal resident families as in the rural resident families, is greater than in the families of the city residents. The number of members in marginal families averages five to six people. Table 2 in- dicates the distribution of sampled households according to the number of family members. Several cultural factors contribute to family size. The effect of religion on the marginal residents is more palpable than in the city residents especially with respect to birth control. The marginal residents do not utilize birth control, because of their belief that it is not their right to interfere with God's work in creating human beings. Economic factors also play a role in determining family size. The number of offspring is related to the total fa— mily income. The more children in a household, the more possible income to be earned because there are more people available t0 work. For instance, children can earn income by making carpets or possibly in a household service job. N \0 TABLE 1 FAMILY COMPOSITION TYPE OF FAMILY N’MBER OF HOUSEHOLDS Husband, wife, children 119 70.8 Only husband, wife 8 4.8 Mother and children A 2.u Father and children 2 1.2 Extended families 29 17.2 Two—wife families 1 0.6 Families with one member 5 3.0 TOTAL 168 100 30 TABLE 2 DISTRIBUTION OF THE SAMPLED HOUSEHOLDS ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF FAMILY MEMBERS FAMILY NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE TOTAL PERCENTAGE SIZE HOUSEHOLDS OF MEMBERS OF HOUSEHOLDS MEMBERS 1 member 5 2.0 5 6 2 members 9 5.4 18 2.1 3 " 19 11.3 57 6.4 4 " 26 15.6 104 11.8 5 " 37 22 o 185 20.9 6 " 31 18.5 186 21.0 7 " 21 12.5 147 16.6 8 " 6 3.5 48 5.4 9 " 6 3.5 51: 6.2 10 or more members 8 4.8 80 9.0 TOTAL 168 100 884 10G Consequently, many do not send their children to school, because they are an important source of income for the fa- mily. Most of the marginal residents live according to tra- dition instead of modernizing their thinking and planning for the future. They are not innovative and often resent or distrust a scientific approach to problem solution. They are not educated, so new ideas are not readily avail— able to them, either. They tend to accept whatever their religion and religious leaders dictate to them. By looking at Table 3, the distribution of family members according to age and sex, it can be seen that the number of males, from zero to nineteen years of age resid- ing in these households is greater than the number of fe— males. In the age group of the twenty to twenty none years, however, there are more females than males. The reason for this decline is partially due to compulsory military service. According to Iranian Constitutional law, all men between twenty and twenty five years of age must serve in some branch of the military for the duration of two years. However, many of these men do not wait until they are draf— ted, but rather voluntarily join the military as a means of gaining employment. A more significant reason which ex- plains the decline in the number of young males 20 -29 years of age, is that men in this age group are very mobile. They move around to find jobs and often they will migrate to other states. Overall, there is almost an equal number of males and females in the sample population. 32 TABLE 3 POPULATION DISTRIBUTION ACCORDING TO AGE GROUP AMONG SAMPLED FAMILIES AGE IN NUMBER PERCENTAGE NUMBER PERCENTAGE BOTH PERCENTAGE YEARS OF OF OF OF SEXES OF MALES MALES FEMALES FEMALES BOTH SEXES 0-9 177 38-3 165 39.1 394 38.7 10-19 95 20.6 76 18.0 171 19.4 20-29 52 11.3 77 18.3 129 14.5 30—39 49 10.6 47 11.1 96 10.9 40-49 51 11.0 29 6.9 80 9.1 50-59 23 4.9 13 3.1 36 4.0 60 and 15 3.3 15 3.5 30 3.4 above TOTAL 462 100 422 100 884 100 33 MARRIAGE Marriage among the marginal residents is different from city residents. According to the Iranian Constitution- al law, the acceptable marital age for both sexes is above eighteen years. Since most of these people have rural back- grounds, they marry whenever they want, regardless of age limitations and legal constraints. The traditional age of marraige for males is fifteen or sixteen. Women are consi- dered marriageable when they reach thirteen or fourteen years of age. It is also required by law that the marriages be re- gistered. Most of the marginal residents, however, do not register their marriages at the marriage bureau. Often they are not aware that it is required and rarely is that information requested from them. Government employees, on the other hand, must reveal their marital status, year of marriage, and the number of children they have at the time of employment. Marginal people are not usually employed by government nor do they come in contact with people who are. The age distribution of married people in the sampled families is found in Table 4. According to this table. there is a total of 140 married males and 145 married fema— les in the sample. The largest percentage of these fall into the 20—29 and 30—39 age groups. Table 5 contains the marital status of currently unmarried persons among the sam- pled families. The types of unmarried status are as follows: divorced, widowed, or never married. There are a total of 34 TABLE 4 AGE DISTRIBUTION_QF MARRIED PEOPLE AMONG THE SAMPLED FAMILIES AGE NUMBER PERCENTAGE NUMBER PERCENTAGE BOTH PERCENTAGE GROUP OF OF OF OF SEXES OF MALES MALES FEMALES FEMALES BOTH SEXES 0-9 0 0 O O 0 0 10-19 2 1.4 19 13.1 21 7.4 20—29 34 24.3 59 40.7 93 32.6 30-39 44 . 31.4 no 27.5 84 29.5 40-49 33 23.6 18 12.4 51 17.9 50-59 16 11.4 8 5.6 24 8.4 60 and 11 7.9 1 0.7 12 4.2 above T TOTAL 140 100 145 100 285 100 35 TABLE 5 MARITAL STATUS OF SINGLE PEOPLE AMONG THE SAMPLED FAMILIES MARITAL NUMBER PERCENTAGE NUMBER PERCENTAGE BOTH PERCENTAGE STATUS OF OF OF OF SEXES OF ‘ MALES MALES FEMALES FEMALES BOTH SEXES Never 116 93.6 31 54.4 147 81.2 married Widowed 4 3.2 22 38.6 26 14.4 Divorced 4 3.2 4 7.0 8 4.4 TOTAL 134 100 57 100 181 100 36 one hundred and eighty one unmarried people in the sample. The number of never married males exceeds that of never mar- ried females. The reason for this is basically cultural and traditional. In Iranian culture, being a single woman is very difficult becuase it is not an acceptable status for a woman. Female virginity before marriage is a cultural norm, and consequently, the longer that a female remains single, the greater the risk that she may lose her virtue. Also, religion encourages people to have a lot of children, so the younger the age of a woman at marriage, the more children she can bear. Economically, marriage is important for women. They do nOt work except at domestic tasks,so the longer they stay with their parents, the more they are regarded as a finan- cial burden. Society looks down on a woman who remains sin- gle for long. She is suspected of being unworthy, lazy, or unvirtuous and so the older she gets, the less desirable she is as the wife for someone's son. This cultural stig— ma does not exist for men because they are their own means of support. DIVORCE Table 6 summarizes the divorce pattens among the sam— pled families. There is a greater incidence of divorce a- mong males than females. Divorce conflicts with a basic tenet of Islam that marriage is a life—long commitment. That is, the married couple should live together until they die. TA 37 BLE 6 DIVORCE PATTERNS AMONG THE SAMPLED FAMILIES NUMBER OF NUMBER PERCENTAGE NUMBER PERCENTAGE BO PERCENTAGE TIMES OF OF OF OF SE OF DIVORCED MALES MALES FEMALES FEMALES BOTH SEXES Once 14 46.7 8 72.7 22 53.7 Twice 12 40.0 1 9.1 13 31.7 Three times 3 10.0 2 18.2 5 12.2 Four. 1 3 3 o o 1 2 L: times ' ' TOTAL 30 100 11 100 41 100 38 Another important reason for the low divorce rate among marginal people is the economic dependency of women on men. The husband is the main provider, and for this reason a wo- man submits to his authority. If she becomes a problem, or in any way creates tension and friction in the family, the man has the option to divorce her and thereby withdraw fi- nancial support for her and her children. Lastly, the extended family structure, prevalent among rural and marginal people, offers yet another explanation for the low rate of divorce. Such a family structure ex- tends great pressure upon couples to remain married, since the family's reputation and its religious standing in so- ciety are at stake. For instance, some of the respondents in the sample who claimed to have married more than once, often ended up remarrying their initial Spouse as a respon- se to family pressures. The reasons for divoce among sampled families are list- ed in Table 7. Fourteen out of the 41 persons got divorced for reasons of incompatiblity. The most commonly cited rea- son for divorce among the sampled families was illness of spouse. This can be easily understood in light of the eco- nomic dependence of marginal women on their husbands. Another frequently cited reason for divorce, was lack of understanding between husbands and wives. Sometimes, this stems from discrepancies due to large age differences between the spouses. Other times these differences come from household or childrearing disagreements. Two persons 39 TABLE 7 REASONS FOR DIVORCE AMONG SAMPLED FAMILIES REASONS FOR DIVORCE NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE PEOPLE Incompatibility 14 34.1 Illness of spouse 18 43.9 Lack of understanding 5 12.2 Infertility 2 4.9 Other 2 4.9 TOTAL 41 100. 40 said that they were divorced because of the infertility of their spouse. When a question of infertility arises the spouses go to the doctor to determine who is affected. Ge~ nerally Speaking, it is more difficult for a woman to deal with being infertile than it is for a man, since she has greater economic and emotional attachment to childbearing. Arranged marriages are very common throughout Iranian society. They are most prevalent in the rural and marginal sectors. Usually the grandparents choose the woman for the grandson. They believe that their son does not have any experience in matters of marriage and so he is not able to make such decisions by himself. The woman they pick will probably be very young, sheltered, and not educated. All these factors will contribute to her reSpectability and o- bedience to her husband. She will be viewed as less influ— enced by the corrupting forces in the society. The arrang- ments are completed when they give a present or dowry to the mother of the bride. This symbolized their gratitude for the mother's having given milk to her daughter. This system of prearranged marriages results, more often now than in the past,in the divorce of younger cou— ples. Although the resons are numerous, incompatibility and lack of experience with members of the opposite sex . were the two reasons most often cited. Prior to being mar- ried, these young people live with their parents, and do not have the responsibility that marriage places on their shoulders. Once they marry. they must leave their parents' 41 home to form one of their own, often without a job or the Skills necessary to obtain them. MIGRATION As can be seen from Table 8, most of the marginal re- sidents migrated to Tabriz form rural areas. Almot 80% of the sampled families came from the rural areas in the pro- vince of Azarbijen. Similarly, Table 9 lists the last oc— cupation of the head of the households prior to migrating to the city. Again, 80% of the heads of these households worked in agriculture. Forty-eight percent were farmers, while the remaining 32% were farm laborers. As is evident in Table 10, the greatest portion of these people migrated after 1971. Before 1963, only 25 fa- milies had migrated. Between 1963 and 1970, migration in- creased at an average annual rate of 5. However, in 1971, sixteen families migrated to the area, and between 1975 and 1976, the total annual migration was 21 and 28 families, respectively. Table 11 summarizes the eight most frequently offered reasons for migration. About 73% of the families attributed the cause of their migration to economic factors. Twelve percent of the people cited lack of public services as the mitigating factor, while only 4% said they migrated because of lack of educational facilities. The findings summarized in Tables 8,9,10 and 11 can be explained in terms of the political and socio-economic e— vents which occured in Iran during the fifties and sixties. 42 TABLE 8 PREVIOUS LOCATION OF SAMPLED FAMILIES LOCATIONS NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS PERCENTAGES Tabriz city 25 14.9 Rural areas 19 11.3 around Tabriz Other Cities or 14 smflltmmsin 83 Azarbejan Province Other rural areas within Azarbejan 103 61.3 Province Other 7 4.2 TOTAL 168 100 43 TABLE 9 LAST OCCUPATION Q£_HEAD QF_SAMPLED FAMILIES TYPES OF OCCUPATIONS NUMBER OF PERCENTAGES HOUSEHOLDS Farmers 80 47.6 Farm laborers 54 32.1 Craftsmen 13 7-7 Bedouins 9 5-9 Other occupations 4 2.4 Unemployed 8 4.8 TOTAL 168 100 44 TABLE 10 YEAR 0 MIGRATION YEAR OF MIGRATION NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE HOUSEHOLDS Before 1963 25 14.9 1963 — 1970 36 21.4 1971 16 .5 1972 8 4.8 1973 16 9.5 1974 9 5.4 1975 21 12.5 1976 28 16.7 1977 9 5-3 TOTAL 168 100 1:5 TABLE 11 REASONS FOR MIGRATION REASONS FOR NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE MIGRATION HOUSEHOLDS Seeking higher 81 48.2 income Dissatisfaction with previous 18 10.7 type of work Seeking easier work 18 10.7 Unemployed 6 3.6 Lack of services 20 11.9 Disagreement with neighbors 15 8'9 Lack of schools 7 4.2 Other 3 1.8 TOTAL 168 100 46 As was previously described (refer to Statement of Problem), the Shah's so called "Land Reform" had a negative impact upon rural people especially the landless peasants. the poorest of these. Rather than creating jobs and impro— ving their standard of living, the end result of this "re- form" was the reduction of the number of farm related jobs available to the landless peasants, robbing them of their livelihood. Left without a means of supporting their fami- lies, they migrated to the cities. A similar catastrophy occurred among the Bedouin tri— bes which seasonly roamed the land from north to south seek- ing climatic conditions appropriate for their herds. The Shah's attempt to increase the agricultural production of Iran by confiscating and cultivating the Bedouin's winter grazing lands destroyed the economic self—sufficiency of these people. Rather than watch their herds die from the bitter cold, they sold their animals to the slaughter houses. Stripped of their only means of production, they too migra— ted to the city. In short, the end result of these two events was the rural—to-urban migration of a large group of poor and un- skilled people. Both Table 8 and Table 9 demonstrate that the majority of the marginal residents were rural people. Table 8 does this by enumerating the location of their pre- Vious homes, and Table 9 by listing their previous occupa— tion. The results of one table are validated by those of the other and conversely. 47 Prior to the collapse of Asiatic modes of production which occurred after 1963, rural people had a means of ma- king a living. Consequently, as is demonstrated in Table 10, only a small percentage of these residents migrated prior to 1963. However, the collapse of these modes of pro— duction was not instantaneous, nor were their effects felt immediately. Consequently, there was a gradual increase in the rate of migration in the years that followed. Again Table 10 exemplifies this process. As was previously defined, most of these rural people migrated to the city because in one way or another they had been robbed of their traditional ways of earning a living. Support for this is given in Table 11, which states the rea- sons for migrations. Most of the sampled families cited e- conomic factors as the mitigating cause of their migration. In short then, the findings listed in Tables 8, 9, 10, and 11 are summarized as follows. First of all, migration occurred as economic conditions forced rural people to move to the city in search of a livelihood. Secondly, this ru- ral—to-urban migration was the result of a series of socio— economic and political events whose impact gradually escala- ted from 1963. 'Table 12 lists the level of satisfaction after migra- tion. Thirty-two percent of the families are unsatisfied with the results of migration. The remainder (78%) are at least fairly satisfied. Although city life has not full- filled all of their expectations, they are nonetheless, in 48 TABLE 12 SATISFACTION AFTER MIGRATION DEGREE OF NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE SATISFACTION HOUSEHOLDS Excellent 12 7.2 Good 30 17.9 Fair 73 ”3:5 Unsatisfactory 43 25.6 Terribly Unsatisfactory 5 2'9 Indifferent 5 2.9 TOTAL 168 100 49 a better economic situation than if they had remained in their previous homes. Even though most of them have low paying jobs in the terciary sector, they at least have a means of making a living. Therefore, they are somewhat sa— tisfied. Another reason which explains the unusually high degree of satisfaction among these residents, is tied to the notion of the rising expectation that the government will sooner or later provide them with electricity, running water and other public services. In the rural areas, they did not e— ven harbor this hope. Consequently, such expectations, al- though having a low probability level of occurring, nonethe- less, increased their level of satisfaction and maintained their morale. Table 13 and Table 14 are more clearly understood in terms of item IX on the questionnaire (refer to appendix). This item asks the respondents if they would like to return to their previous home. Table 13 enumerates the reasons for refusing to return given by those 116 who reSponded negative— ly on this item. The responses given by almost 60% of these people put the experience of migration in a rather favorable light. Twenty percent said that they were satisfied with the migration experience and, consequently, had no desire to return. Another 11% refused to return because living in the city increased the educational Opportunities available for their children. Nearly 28% said that they had lived through bad or negative experiences at their previous homes TABLE 13 REASONS FOR NOT GOING BACK TO LOCATIONS FOR THOSE SATISFIED THEIR PREVIOUS WITH MIGRATION REASONS NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS PERCENTAGE Ashamed to 43 37.1 return Bad experience at previous 31 27.7 location Satisfied with current life 23 19'8 Education more avail- able for children 13 11.2 Other 6 5.2 TOTAL 116 100 51 and therefore did not wish to return. Lastly, 37% said that they were ashamed to return home and face their rela- tives and friends who would laugh and jeer at them. The major reasons for wishing to return to their pre- vious homes given by those 52 families who answered item IX positively, are listed in Table 14. Only 36% of these people attributed their desire to return to their previous homes to factors directly associated to negative gains from the migration experience. Almost an equal percentage, 35%, said they either missed their birthplace and/or their re- lative. Lastly, 17.3% attributed their desire to return to an inability ot adjust to the new environment, while 6% cited mistreatment by marginal neighbors as the motivating factor. Table 15 summarized the major reasons given by the 168 families for living in the marginal sector. The majority of these people, almost 94%, attributed their living in the marginal sector directly or indirectly to economic factors. Almost 63% of the sampled families claimed that they live in the marginal sector because of their low income. Another variant or result of low income which was cited by 20% of these people was the high cost of housing in the city. Related to this, 12% said that they could build their own house in the marginal area, whereas in the city, they would have to pay rent. Only 5% cited proximity to work (3.6%) and relatives or friends (1.8%) as the motivat- ing factor. 52 TABLE 14 REASONS FOR WISHING TO RETURN TO THEIR PREVIOUS LOCATIONS FOR THOSE UFSATISFIED WITH MIGRATION REASONS NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE HOUSEHOLDS Not achieving any 19 36.5 gains from migration Desire to be near 0 their birthplace 10 1/'2 Having relatives back at previous 8 15'“ place Inability to adjust to current environment 9 17.3 Mistreatment by mar- ginal neighbors 3 5.8 Other reasons 3 5.8 TOTAL 52 100 TABLE 15 REASONS FOR RESIDING IN THE MARGINAL SECTOR REASONS NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE HOUSEHOLDS Low income 105 62.5 High cost of house rent in city 34 20.2 Having own house 20 11.9 Proximity to work place 6 3.6 Proximity to friends and relatives 3 1. CD TOTAL 168 100 5a The findings summarized in these tables can once again be explained in terms of the series of political and so- cio—economic events which occurred in Iran (refer to State— ment of Problem). As was previously described, the rural people migrated to the cities looking for jobs and a way of making a livelihood. Since most of these people were poor and unskilled, they were forced to take on the lower pay- in jobs available in the terciary sector. Consequently. it is not surprising that the majority of these people ci- ted economic factors as the reason for living in the mar- ginal sector (see Table 15). Similarly, it is not surprisisng that at least two thirds of the families expressed no desire to return to their previous homes (Tables 13 & 14). Although living in the city is difficult, they at least have a job. Any job, even a low status, low paying job, is better than not hav— ing any job. Lastly, the result of this study support a position prevalent in the current literature on migration. Simply stated, it claims that migrants tend to be rural people who move to the city because they can no longer make a living in the country. Tables 8, 9, and 11 lend support to this position. On the other hand, this same body of literature states that because these migrants are generally unfamiliar with urban people and lifestyle, the process of adaption is dif— ficult and painful. Therefore, after only a short period 55 f time has elapsed, they are ready to return to their pre- vious homes. The findings of this study do not support this position. Of the 168 sampled families, only 52 said that they would be willing to return to their previous homes (Table 14). The overriding proportion of these families said that they were at least fairly satisfied with the experience (Table 12) and would not return to their previous home (Table 13). To summarize then, the results of this study demonstra- te that migration occurred as economic conditions forced rural people to move to the city in search of a livelihood. Poor and unskilled, these migrants were forced to accept the lower paying jobs in the terciary sector. Consequently, they were unable to afford housing within the city and were forced to reside in the marginal sector. AMPLOYMENT According to the data collected, there are 253 per- sons among the sampled families employed at the time of the survey. Because no official employment records are kept, it is difficult to categorize the employment situation of these marginal people. However, most of these are employ— ed as blue collar. that is, as some type of unskilled labor. Table 16 shows the distribution of employed people. Although the law prohibits any minor under 12 to be employ— ed, among the sampled families, eighteen children under 10 years of age were working. This is due to the fact that 56 TABLE 16 AND AGE 13 THE SAMPLED AGE UMBER PETCENTACE NUMBER PERCENTAGE BOTH PERCENTASE GROUP OF OF OF OE SEXES OE MALES MALES FEMA ES FEMALES BOTH SE73C O -9 12 5.h 6 19.u 18 7.1 10 -19 61 27.u 1A M5.2 75 29.6 20 -29 30 13.5 6 19.3 36 1h.2 3O -39 47 21.2 A 12.9 51 20.2 40 -49 A6 20.8 1 3.2 A? 18.6 50 —‘9 18 8.1 O O 18 7.1 60 and 3 A O o 8 3.2 above ’ TOTAL 222 100 31 100 253 100 57 children provide an important source of additional income for the family. Host of them are employed at making car- pets. They either work for individual carpet buyers, who pay them for making carpets in their own home, or the pa— rents often contract with the buyers for their children to make a carpet within a specified time span at a set price. Physically, carpet weaving is very harmful to these children, causing most of them to develop eye disease. Many also suffer from vitamin deficiency due to lack of sun- light. Often they are plagued with bone deformities and protein deficiencies. 10st of the young people within the ten to nineteen age group are also employed in the carpet industry. Because compulsatory military service is re— quired for men who are between twenty and twenty—five years of age, many young men within this age group who would 0— therwise be employed, are serving their two years in the military. This accounts for the comparatively low percen— tage of workers in the twenty to twenty-five age group. Women are not allowed to work due to the traditional belief that the woman's place is at home. Those women who indicated they are employed usually do work within their own home, for instance, making carpets or taking laundry. Because most are unskilled and uneducated, the jobs usually available for marginal residents are the lower sa— lary jobs of the terciary sector. They become janitors, restaurant workers, or privately employed yard keepers. According to Table 17, there are eleven households kn CD DISTRIBUTION OE FAMILIES BASED ON NUMBER OE PERSONS EMPLOYED IN EACH FAMILY NUMBER IF PERSONS EMPLOYED NUMBER OF ERCENTAGE HOUSEHOLDS No one employed 11 6.6 One person employed 85 50.6 Two persons employed 31 18.5 Three persons employed 22 13.0 Four or more persons employed 10 5'9 Unclear 9 5.“ TOTAL 168 100 59 without any employed persons. Such factors could be attri- buted to illness or to the residents being elderly people who are no longer able to work. Almost ninety percent of the families have at least one person employed. When a— nalyzing job satisfaction, hoewever, more than half of the people are dissatisfied with their present employment. According to Table 18 and Table 19, only two people indi- cated they received enough income for their work. Twelve were happy just to be employed and thirteen were glad to find jobs that required no previous experience. Although they would have prefered higher income, easier work and more permanent employment, 60% of these people indicated that they were satisfied simply because they were employ- ed. In short, because they viewed work as both a necessity and a responsibility, being employed, regardless of the place, was in and of itself, satisfactory. Underemployment is a common method of exploitation used by employers. It helps them keep the workers from organizing to demand higher wages and working conditions. Job security is practically none-existent in areas with large labor pools such as marginal settlements. Table 20 shows the income rate by age distribution. The data summarized in this table demonstrates the exis- tence of a correlation between income and age among sam- pled families. The mean monthly income is highest for the age range of thirty to thirty nine years. Income increases sharply from the lowest age group and reaches its highest 60 TABLE 18 REASONS FOR JOB DISSATISFACTION AMONG THE SAMPLED FAMILIES REASONS FOR NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE DISSATISFACTION HOUSEHOLDS Low income 25 25.5 Hard work A 4.1 Hard work and low income 21 21.4 Temporary job 13 13.3 Temporary job and low income 35 35‘? TOTAL 98 100 61 TABLE 19 REASONS FOR JOB SATISFACTION AMONG THE SAMPLED FAMILIES REASONS FOR NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE SATISFACTION HOUSEHOLDS Economic responsibility U2 60 No job requirements 13 18.6 Being employed (as opposed to not being 12 17.1 employed) Enough wages 2 2.9 Unclear 1 1.4 TOTAL 70 100 ooH Ho.m:m ooH os.HHomH oofi mmm q¢eoe 62 . . . . . m>opm m an on Hm N m was m m m cam om o.mfi mm.mm m.s .ozm H.s ma on . om H.mH m:.mo m.mm zfi.smmm o.mfi s: m: I o: m.om om.mp :.sm mm.mmmm m.om an on . om m.mH mm.so s.mfi HA.H::N m.:H mm mm . om o.oH . ms.:m 0.0m .mowm 0.0m mm as I OH m.fi m:.o a m. .mfifi s H.s an m a o msoozH Amsma sassy msoozH msoozH samezos macozH mgmomm mqmomm sqmezos z