MIGRATION: ATTRACTING PEOPLE TO YOUR CITY

hen you first start a new city, it has no population at all. As soon as you designate an area of land to be used for housing, some carts should start to move into your province and set up their homes in this area. They know very little about you and your style of governing, but are willing to give you a chance. But after a small initial group of people (probably up to 100 or so) have moved in, you need to attract others by the way you govern.

Word about the mood of people in your city spreads rapidly throughout the region. If your citizens are pleased with you, then more people will be keen to come in; if the existing population is upset, new citizens are likely to stay away, and (if they are really angry) you might even find some of your existing population moving out. See Page 59 for more information about the mood of your population.

Knowing what will make these people happy in your city is fairly easy: they need food, jobs, and a place to live. Note that people living in tents expect to find their own food from the land; if you need more people in your city but don't have enough food for them, create an area of cheap housing, with no facilities, and some immigrants should move in. If a city has unfilled jobs, food to eat and space in housing areas, immigrants will move in unless something else is wrong.

What could be wrong? Understandably, citizens dislike very high tax rates and low wages. If there has been a lot of sickness in the city, that, too, could make people think twice about moving in. Occasionally, you might find that an angry god has frightened others away.

Just remember to try to keep your people happy, with job vacancies and plenty of food being the two crucial ways of doing this. If you talk to any of your people, they will be only too happy to tell you what they think of life; be careful, though, since they love to moan, and will usually tell you of any pro blem at all, even if it is minor, given half a chance. Your Chief Advisor can tell you very reliably what the overall mood of the people is at any time.

When immigrants arrive, they bring carts of their belongings with them, looking for available housing. They will move in to any housing which has space for them. Once they are settled, if space becomes vacant in a better house in the city, they automatically move into it, vacating their old home.

Sometimes houses devolve back to a more primitive level than they were before. This can happen if some of their goods or services are cut off for some reason. This often means that fewer citizens can fit into the building, and so some of those who used to live there become homeless. You will see homeless people dragging a sack of their belongings forlornly behind them, trying to find somewhere else to live. If they cannot, they will be forced to leave your city.