Migration and Land Acquisition: The New Landowners of Lagos

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Periodical article

Title:	Migration and Land Acquisition: The New Landowners of Lagos
Author:	Barnes, Sandra T.
Year:	1979
Periodical:	African Urban Studies
Issue:	4
Period:	Spring
Pages:	59-70
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	urbanization real property urban areas Urbanization and Migration Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Abstract:	Thesis of this paper is that the acquisition of real estate is a fundamental feature of the Lagos migration cycle and that those migrants who buy land and build housing are more likely to become permanent residents than are those who do not. For the most part this essay focuses on migrants who have acquired real estate in suburban Lagos in the post-World War II period, an era that has seen the city grow to become tropical Africa's largest urban center. Because of the population increase, housing has become a scarce resource. As such, the difficulties experienced in acquiring it are many and notorious; they are elaborated here together with the characteristics of those individuals who have managed to overcome them. Thereafter, the essay turns to the social benefits accruing to a landowner by virtue of his or her ownership of real estate. Ref., notes.