Dufour D L, Piperata B A
Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0233, USA.
Am J Hum Biol. 2004 Jul-Aug;16(4):395-404. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.20043.
Urbanization is an important demographic phenomenon, and in Latin America it transformed the settlement pattern from rural to predominantly urban in less than 50 years. Understanding the biological consequences of this change in settlement pattern is an important challenge for human biologists. One approach to understanding the effects of urban environments on human biology has been to study rural-to-urban migrants. In Latin America this research has shown that 1) the fertility of migrants tends to be intermediate between that of rural and urban populations, and 2) migrants tend to suffer higher rates of mortality and morbidity, at least initially, than long-term urban residents. There is some indication that the actual physical conditions under which migrants live in urban areas-and these tend to be among the most impoverished-are more important variables than migrant status per se. Studying rural-to-urban migrants requires careful attention to a number of conceptual issues. One issue is the definition of rural and urban. These two types of settlements are no longer as distinct as they once were, and "urban" can mean very different things in different places. Another issue is the complexity of current migration patterns. The classic case of people moving from a distinctly rural setting to a distinctly urban one and staying there for the remainder of their lives is not the norm. Third, the urban environments of large cities are extraordinarily heterogeneous environments with enormous socioeconomic differentials in health. Hence, it matters where in the urban environment the migrants live.
城市化是一种重要的人口现象，在拉丁美洲，它在不到50年的时间里将居住模式从农村转变为以城市为主。理解这种居住模式变化的生物学后果，是人类生物学家面临的一项重大挑战。理解城市环境对人类生物学影响的一种方法是研究从农村到城市的移民。在拉丁美洲，这项研究表明：1）移民的生育率往往介于农村和城市人口之间；2）至少在最初阶段，移民的死亡率和发病率往往高于长期居住在城市的居民。有迹象表明，移民在城市地区的实际生活条件（这些条件往往是最贫困的）比移民身份本身更重要。研究从农村到城市的移民需要仔细关注一些概念性问题。一个问题是农村和城市的定义。这两种类型的居住地不再像过去那样截然不同，而且“城市”在不同地方可能意味着非常不同的事物。另一个问题是当前移民模式的复杂性。人们从明显的农村环境迁移到明显的城市环境并在那里度过余生的经典案例并非普遍现象。第三，大城市的城市环境是极其多样化的环境，在健康方面存在巨大的社会经济差异。因此，移民居住在城市环境的何处很重要。
