The paper provides an overview of urbanization patterns and trends in the current era in South Africa, focusing in particular on the key dynamics and driving forces underlying migration and urbanization. It considers overall demographic trends with regard to migration and urbanization, and points to some of the difficulties with data, and with the analysis of trends and patterns. The paper explores the changing rural context and dynamics, and some of the significant processes in this context: large-scale displacement of black people off farms, the impact of land reform, and conditions in the former homeland areas. Circular migration continues to be an important way in which households in rural areas survive, but some are unable to move, and are falling out of these networks. International migration-the consequence of both conditions in the home country and the draw of the South African economyis another significant process fuelling mainly urban growth. The paper demonstrates the importance of cities in terms of economic growth and employment, and thus their attractiveness to migrants. Continuing migration to cities is of course a challenge for Urban Forum (2010)

This paper provides a demographic analysis of the Human Sciences Research Council homelessness survey, and starts to develop a profile of the adult and child street homeless populations in the northern part of South Africa. Attempting to sketch the population dynamics of homelessness, the paper reviews research methodology, looks at the age, gender and employment status of the respondents, and identifies the foreign-born and citizen population elements. The data suggest that cross-border migrants represent a significant share of the street homeless, and particularly of street children. In addition, it appears that the child and adult populations are largely separate, with older street children leaving the streets to be replaced by in-migrating rural-born homeless adults.street homeless, homelessness, demography, unemployment, immigrants, migrants,

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