Even though policymakers and researchers often train their focus on megacities, small cities host large shares of the urban population in emerging economies and play a major role in supporting the development process. Today throughout the Global South, many small cities are growing faster-economically and demographically-than bigger metropolitan areas. This research project examines the way small cities shape the employment outcomes of migrant youth in India and Indonesia-the two largest democracies in the developing world.

As both countries hope to leverage their demographic dividends by employing young people in productive jobs, their small cities lie on the front lines of development challenges surrounding urbanization, migration and work. Using a case city approach with both surveys and qualitative research, the project looks at economic opportunity and job pathways in small cities, and especially the ways in which gender and migration shape the nature of these opportunities.

Further, the project considers whether current governance and policy frameworks support the ability of small cities to enable social and economic mobility-offering concrete recommendations for policy reforms toward that aim. This initiative is made possible through generous funding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Think Tank Initiative (TTI).