There's also this notion that even if you're in poverty you can disguise it living in the city and bring part of it.
Sometimes changes in climate can also lead to agricultural work simply becoming impossible/unprofitable, thus forcing rural labor to move to the cities, looking for work which isn't impacted by the climate.
At least that's what happened in Syria [0], the sad part is that the final outcome wasn't all that unexpected [1].
[0] https://www.irinnews.org/feature/2009/09/02/drought-driving-...
Some what disappointing to see the "climate change" meme come up so often as the cause for some badness in the world when it is, at best, tangentially related to the issue being discussed.
Nowhere in my comment did I make "man-made climate change" a topic, I merely pointed out that outside of economic factors there are also environmental factors which can make rural agricultural production unprofitable if not straight up unviable.
As such it's quite relevant to the parent's point of "Why do people move from rural areas to urban centers?"
Because I'm pretty sure that Syria isn't the only place on Earth suffering from droughts, or other changes in climate, impacting a regions viability for agricultural production.
I think the choice isn't between bad urban conditions and good conditions somewhere else. The choice is between bad urban conditions and bad rural conditions. Bad urban conditions provide people with better economic opportunity than bad rural conditions. Urban conditions provide more social mobility and this also tends to improve the economic prospects of the poor.
As demanding and dangerous as poorly regulated manufacturing workplaces can be, they tend to be no more demanding and no more dangerous than agricultural work.