A Clash of Cultures: How Rural Out-Migrants Adapt to Urban Life in Baku

Abstract

As in other developing countries, rural-urban migration in Azerbaijan has led to over-crowding of the metropolitan Baku area, affecting the livelihood of a considerable number of communities and residents. This article provides an overview of socio-economic repercussions of rural migration to Baku. More specifically, it focuses on the adaptation of rural mechanisms (such as social networks of mutual assistance, community solidarity, and operation of social safety nets) among rural migrants after they have resettled to the new urban space. While Baku’s closed nepotistic economy of favors forces rural migrants to rely on their bonding social capital (immediate kin, relatives, neighbors), the meeting of city and village in Azerbaijan brings out the worst of the two worlds.