Cyprus Urbanization and Occupational Change
Kakopetria, a village in the Troodos Mountains
Courtesy Republic of Cyprus, Press and Information Office, Nicosia
Cyprus experienced a rapid and intense economic
transformation
after World War II. The traditional economy of subsistence
agriculture and animal husbandry was replaced by a
commercial
economy, centered in expanding urban areas. These economic
changes
resulted from extensive construction of housing and other
facilities for British military personnel during World War
II;
exports of minerals (60 percent of all exports), which
became the
island's most valuable export in the 1950s; and the
fourteenfold
increase in British military spending through the postwar
period.
(Cyprus became Britain's most important base in the
eastern
Mediterranean after the loss of bases in the Arab
countries.)
Independence brought such an acceleration of economic
development,
the so-called "economic explosion," that by the end of the
1960s
the objectives of the government's economic planning were
not only
fulfilled, but overtaken.
In this context of economic growth, agriculture
modernized,
farm machinery became common, irrigation increased, and
the
scientific use of pesticides and fertilizers became
widespread, but
farming became less important in the economy as a whole.
Although
agricultural income tripled during the 1950s, and then
doubled in
the 1960s, earnings from industry, construction, trade,
tourism,
and telecommunications grew even more, and agriculture's
share of
the gross domestic product
(GDP--see Glossary) declined.
This
decline brought with it changes in employment for many.
The
increasing fragmentation of farms through inheritance and
a
shortage of water caused Cypriots to leave farming for
full-time or
part-time jobs in other economic sectors. The proximity of
employment opportunities in urban areas only made the
transition
easier.
The flight from agriculture, which became noticeable in
the
decade and a half after World War II, continued after
independence
and reached a peak in 1974, when the best and most
productive
agricultural land fell under Turkish occupation. In 1960,
some 40.3
percent of the economically active population were
agricultural
workers; in 1973, the figure were down to 33.6 percent
employed in
this sector. In 1988 government figures estimated only
13.9 percent
of the work force earned a living from farming full time.
Although
changes in accounting principles are the cause of some of
this
decline, the decline of agricultural employment since the
late
1940s was striking.
Urbanization in Cyprus did not result in the
annihilation of
traditional values and practices, but in their
preservation.
Urbanization took place under conditions that generally
spared the
island the problems often connected with migration of
large numbers
of unemployed farm workers to urban centers. For one
thing,
urbanization occurred in a period of prosperity and
increasing
economic activity, and employment was available. In
addition, farm
workers generally left their villages only when they had
found work
in urban areas. Another happy circumstance was that the
island's
small size and its good road system linked most villages
to the
towns, so that many rural workers could commute daily to
their new
jobs. The capital and largest city was especially well
connected to
the countryside. Finally, rural migrants unable to afford
housing
in Nicosia and other towns were able to settle in nearby
villages,
a circumstance that reduced the likelihood of slums.
Many migrants regarded access to secondary education as
a
principal reason for moving to the city. While traditional
Cypriot
agricultural society valued land above all else and
considered
education a wasteful luxury, a modern and diversified
economy made
education a necessity. Migrants came to value education as
the
principal means of improving their material and social
positions.
Expansion of education contributed immensely to the
dissemination
of urban values and organizations to rural Cyprus.
Postwar population redistribution in Cyprus was so
extensive
that most urban dwellers were born in rural areas. These
migrants
maintained close ties with the countryside, and many owned
plots of
land in their places of origin. The satisfaction of owning
land
went beyond increasing property values, a fact that is
easy to
understand in Cypriots, who were an agricultural people
until just
a generation ago.
Data as of January 1991
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