Cambridge IGCSE Global Perspectives (0457): Topic: Migration and urbanisation – Study Guide

This study guide covers the topic Migration and urbanisation from the Cambridge IGCSE Global Perspectives (0457) syllabus for examination in 2025, 2026 and 2027, Version 2 (published April 2025). The topic appears in the single topic list in section 3, and the skills it is used to practise are set out in section 2 (assessment objectives) and section 4 (details of the assessment). The topic list is for all three components: Component 1 Written Exam, Component 2 Individual Report and Component 3 Team Project.

Read this first. The syllabus states plainly that knowledge of content is not assessed. You will not gain marks for knowing facts about migration or cities. This page shows you how to use the topic to practise the assessed skills: research, analysis and evaluation; reflection; and communication and collaboration. The real-world examples below are there to give you material to reason with, not facts to memorise.

Other pages for this unit: revision notes and practice questions. For the whole course, see the Global Perspectives hub and the 0457 checklist.

Coverage table

Syllabus reference	What you must be able to do (from the document)	Where assessed
Section 3, Topics; Issues and perspectives	Explore global issues within a chosen topic and understand different perspectives on them	All three components
Section 2, AO1 Research, analysis and evaluation	Identify and analyse issues, arguments and perspectives; analyse and evaluate evidence and reasoning; analyse and evaluate sources; develop a line of reasoning	Component 1 (100% AO1), Component 2, Component 3
Section 2, AO2 Reflection	Consider different perspectives objectively and with empathy; justify a personal perspective with evidence and reasoning	Component 2 and Component 3 (0% of Component 1)
Section 2, AO3 Communication and collaboration	Present arguments, evidence and perspectives clearly with structure; include citations and references; contribute to the Team Project	Component 2 and Component 3
Section 4, Component 1	Analyse sources; evaluate research or evidence and suggest how to test a claim; evaluate arguments; assess actions in response to a global issue. Understand bias, claim, fact, generalisation, opinion, prediction, value and vested interest	Component 1 Written Exam (1 hour 25 minutes, 70 marks)
Section 4, Component 2	Choose a global issue that divides opinion; devise a global research question; research local and/or national and global perspectives; analyse causes and consequences; propose one course of action; evaluate sources; reflect	Component 2 Individual Report (1500-2000 words, 60 marks)
Section 4, Component 3	Identify a local issue; research different perspectives; plan, carry out and measure an action; reflect	Component 3 Team Project (70 marks)

Issues at global, national and local level

The syllabus defines an issue as “an important subject or problem for discussion”. A topic is broad; an issue is a specific problem inside it that people disagree about. “Migration and urbanisation” is a topic. “Should cities clear informal settlements to build new housing?” is an issue.

Useful working vocabulary (for reasoning, not for recall):

• Migration – people moving from one place to live in another, within a country (internal) or across borders (international).
• Urbanisation – a rising share of a population living in towns and cities.
• Push and pull factors – reasons that drive people away from a place, and reasons that attract them to another.
• Informal settlement – housing built without formal planning permission or legal title, often lacking services.
• Remittances – money migrants send back to family in their place of origin.
• Brain drain – the loss of skilled workers from a place when they emigrate.

Issues sit at different levels, and the syllabus asks you to consider personal, local and/or national, and global perspectives.

• Global: The UN’s World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision estimated that 55% of the world’s population lived in urban areas in 2018 and projected 68% by 2050. UN DESA estimated about 304 million international migrants in mid-2024. Sustainable Development Goal 11 aims to make cities “inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”, and target 10.7 refers to “orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration”.
• National: Governments decide who may enter, work and settle, and how to plan for growing cities. China’s household registration system (hukou) is a well-known example of a national policy that has linked access to some public services to a person’s registered place of residence, which matters for rural people who move to cities.
• Local: A neighbourhood may face rising rents, crowded schools, new businesses, new languages in the playground or pressure on green space.
• Personal: A family member who moved for work, or a classmate who arrived recently, gives a personal perspective.

Skill move: ask how a fact at one level plays out at another. A national rule on work permits becomes a local issue when a factory cannot fill shifts.

Perspectives on migration and urbanisation

The syllabus defines a perspective as “a viewpoint on an issue based on evidence and reasoning”. Migration is a contested subject. Your job is to explain each perspective fairly and to show why people hold it, not to decide who is right before you have weighed the evidence.

Group	A perspective they might hold	Why they might hold it
A rural family	Moving to the city offers better jobs and schools	Low farm incomes, few local services
Long-standing city residents	Rapid growth strains housing and transport	They see rents rise and commutes get longer
Employers	Migrant workers fill labour shortages	Some sectors struggle to recruit
Governments of origin countries	Emigration brings remittances but loses skills	Both effects show up in national data
Governments of destination countries	Views vary from welcoming to restrictive	Different priorities on the economy, security, culture and public services
International bodies	Migration should be safe and well managed	The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was adopted in 2018; a small number of states voted against it or abstained, partly over national sovereignty

Even at the global level, then, there is no single perspective.

Empathy without agreement. AO2 asks you to consider perspectives “objectively and with empathy”. You can explain why a long-standing resident fears change without endorsing the fear, and you can explain why a migrant moved without ignoring the pressures on the place they moved to.

Causes and consequences

The syllabus aims mention “global issues and their causes and consequences”. Strong answers build chains rather than lists.

Example chain (causes): drought reduces harvests -> farm incomes fall -> young adults move to the city for paid work -> the city’s population grows faster than new housing is built -> informal settlements expand.

Example chain (consequences): remittances rise -> families in the home village pay school fees -> more children stay in school -> but villages may lose working-age adults, leaving older people to farm.

Three habits earn analysis credit:

1. Separate causes at different levels. A personal cause (wanting to join family) is different from a national cause (a lack of rural jobs) or a global cause (climate change affecting farming).
2. Show that one consequence can be positive for one group and negative for another. Cheaper labour helps an employer and may hold down wages for some local workers. Say who gains and who loses.
3. Avoid single-cause stories. If a source blames migrants alone for a housing shortage, check whether it ignores building rates, land prices or planning rules.

Judging sources and evidence

The syllabus says candidates will benefit from understanding bias, claim, fact, generalisation, opinion, prediction, value and vested interest, and should be able to analyse and evaluate use of evidence and language. Migration sources are full of all eight.

Term	Migration-themed example (invented)
Fact	“The city council approved 3,000 building permits last year.” (can be checked)
Opinion	“The new arrivals have made this town a livelier place.”
Claim	“Migrants take jobs that local people want.” (needs evidence)
Generalisation	“Everyone who moves to the city ends up richer.”
Prediction	“The city will run out of water within ten years.”
Value	“Every family deserves a safe home.” (a belief about what matters)
Vested interest	A property developer arguing that a settlement should be cleared for apartments
Bias	A report that quotes only residents who oppose new housing

Language matters. Words such as “flood”, “wave” or “swarm” for people, or “hard-working heroes” for every migrant, are loaded. Quote the word and explain what impression it creates. That is analysis; simply saying “this is biased” is not.

Worked example: evaluating evidence

Imagine a source about the fictional city of Corvanna: “A street survey of 400 residents in one central district found that 72% agreed that newcomers make it harder to find housing. Official figures show 21,000 new households formed in the last five years but only 9,000 new homes were built.”

The source claims newcomers make housing harder to find, supported by a survey in which 288 of 400 residents (72%) agreed. This is evidence of opinion, not of cause: it shows what residents believe, not why housing is scarce. The sample also comes from one central district, where pressure may be higher than elsewhere, so it may not represent the city. The second piece of evidence is stronger because it is official data and measurable: 12,000 more households formed than homes were built. However, this gap could be caused by slow building as much as by arrivals, and the source does not say how many new households were formed by migrants rather than by young local people leaving home. Overall the source supports the claim that housing is scarce, but it does not establish that newcomers are the main cause; I would need the share of new households formed by migrants and the building rate in earlier years to test that.

Look at the moves: identify the claim -> name the evidence -> judge what it can and cannot show -> suggest what extra evidence would test it. That last step matches what Component 1 Question 2 asks for: suggesting ways to research or test a claim.

Courses of action

The syllabus asks you to consider possible courses of action and, in the Individual Report, to propose a single course of action and explain how it could be implemented and what its impact would be. Component 1 Question 4 asks you to assess actions in response to a global issue.

Common actions in this topic, each with a trade-off:

Action	Possible benefits	Possible drawbacks
Upgrading informal settlements in place (water, drains, legal title)	Keeps communities and jobs together; often cheaper than rebuilding	Can be slow; land owners may object
Relocating residents to new housing	Safer, planned homes	New sites may be far from work; social ties broken
Investing in rural jobs and services	Reduces pressure to move	Long-term; may not stop moves driven by family or education
Language and job-skills programmes for new arrivals	Faster integration; employers gain	Needs funding and staff
Ethical recruitment rules for skilled workers	Reduces brain drain from poorer countries	Voluntary codes, such as the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel (2010), are not binding

Judge actions with clear criteria: effectiveness (does it address the cause?), feasibility (cost, time, who must agree), sustainability (will it last, environmentally and financially?) and fairness (who gains and who loses?).

Worked example: assessing an action

Upgrading the settlement in place is likely to be the more effective action because it addresses the immediate problem the sources describe, unsafe water and flooding, without separating residents from the market jobs that brought them to the city. Relocation would provide better homes, but if the new site is far from work, residents may return to informal housing near the centre, so the problem would move rather than end. However, upgrading depends on the landowner accepting residents’ right to stay, and the sources give no evidence that this has been agreed. On balance, upgrading is the stronger option only if land rights can be secured first; without that, neither action would be sustainable.

The paragraph states a judgement, gives reasons linked to evidence, considers the alternative, and adds a condition. That conditional ending is a sign of evaluation.

Ideas for the Individual Report

The Individual Report needs a global issue that divides opinion, a global research question as the title, local and/or national and global perspectives, causes and consequences, one proposed course of action, source evaluation and your own reflection. Questions that work in this topic:

• “Should countries actively recruit skilled health workers from countries that have shortages?”
• “Is clearing informal settlements an effective way to improve life in fast-growing cities?”
• “Should governments limit internal migration to their largest cities?”

Each question allows clearly different perspectives and a course of action. A weak title, such as “Migration”, has no question to answer. The Individual Report guide and Individual Report revision notes explain the structure; your teacher will confirm whether your question is manageable.

Ideas for the Team Project

The Team Project starts from a local issue. Each member researches a different aspect or perspective, the team agrees and carries out an action, and you measure its success. Possible local issues:

• Newly arrived families in your area do not know which local services they can use. Action: a multilingual leaflet or short video guide, with success measured by a feedback form or the number of downloads.
• Students who join your school mid-year feel isolated. Action: a buddy scheme, with success measured by a short survey before and after.
• A nearby area lacks safe green space as housing grows. Action: a clean-up and petition event, with success measured by attendance and signatures.

Keep the action realistic and safe. Use the Team Project guide and Team Project revision notes for the structure of the Explanation of Research and Planning, Evidence of Action and Reflective Paper.

Common errors

• Writing what you know about migration instead of analysing the source in front of you. Component 1 does not assess prior knowledge of the topic.
• Treating a survey of opinions as proof of a cause (“72% think newcomers cause the shortage, so they do”).
• Calling a source biased without quoting its loaded language or naming its vested interest.
• Presenting only two “sides” (for and against migration) when a source contains several groups with different reasons.
• Proposing an action (“build more houses”) without saying who would do it, how, and how you would know if it worked.
• Choosing a Team Project issue that is national or global rather than local.

Where to go next

• Practise the skills on unseen sources: Global Perspectives practice and Written Exam guide.
• Review the source-evaluation vocabulary in Global Perspectives revision notes.
• Related topics: Globalisation, Poverty and inequality and Change in culture and communities.
• Plan coursework with the Individual Report practice and Team Project practice.

Official syllabus

Cambridge IGCSE Global Perspectives (0457) syllabus for examination in 2025, 2026 and 2027, Version 2 (published April 2025), published by Cambridge University Press & Assessment.