In the contemporary Arab world, over half the population live in urban areas, and in some countries, 80–90 percent of the people crowd together in city states. Urbanization, an intensifying trend around the world, is also a complex process of economic, social, and political negotiations in the cities of the Arab states. Poverty, housing shortages, income disparities, transportation woes, civic unrest – all form part of the politics of urban growth.

Urbanization means quite different lives for people of different economic classes; for nationals or migrant laborers; …