The Dynamics of Transition of Rural Migrants to Urban Society: Case Study of Igbomina Migrant Community in Lagos

Adaptation is the process of adjustment of an individual organism to environmental conditions while integration is the process of opening a group, community, place or organization to all members, regardless of race, religion gender or social class. The dynamics of the process of transition of Igbomina people from rural to urban society was gradual and spread over a long time. They initially established in town the socio-political institutions and behavioral patterns which were familiar to them to fulfill most of the needs, which they met in urban environment. Even in later migration, there were not many changes to the pattern of family life. Migrants retained their rural system of traditional values; the concept of the urban culture did not develop due to the well-established culture of circular migration. The range of relationships that ethnic groups maintained among one another within the frame work of contemporary migratory phenomena includes cases such as assimilation, pacific coexistence and animosity. It must be underlined however, that in spite of the integration process, the identity of Igbomina was not obliterated. The transition process of Igbomina into Lagos urban society could therefore be best described as acculturation rather than assimilation in that Igbomina culture in Lagos cannot be described as an extension of the northern Yoruba sub-culture from where they came to Lagos, it was rather a symbiotic relationship between the Yoruba, Hausa, Ibo etc. living together as neighbours.