Forms of population movement in the third world 41
urban areas to work in the oil industry, or for permanent settlement on government-sponsored tracts of land. Elsewhere in the Third World the phenomenon of nomadism is also declining steadily, for a number of reasons. First, nomadic groups are being displaced, or absorbed, by more advanced agricultural (and industrial) societies. Second, national governments have had a significant influence on the decline of nomadism, ever fearful of the security implications of allowing groups of people to roam freely across national boundaries. Program of sedentarization or resettlement, as are firmly promoted in Syria, are commonly justified on the grounds of improving the social welfare of nomadic groups. Third, nomadic societies are coming under increasing pressure as a result of competition for land (particularly in areas where land has some potential for alternative uses). Their lack of legal rights over the territory that they have traditionally occupied for centuries has heightened their vulnerability in this regard. It is not only human pressures which are affecting nomadic groups, however. Tuareg nomads from southern Algeria, Mauretania, Niger and Mali have been displaced by the shifting sands of the Sahara, and now several thousands of them eke out a meager living by begging in the capital cities of their respective countries.