Migration and Rural-Urban Linkages in Ethiopia

agriculture, de-prioritisation of urban development, ‘encadrement’ of peasants throughrural co-operatives, villagisation and resettlement (Berhanu & White 1999; Clapham2003). Reforms also involved the introduction of official registration requirements forboth urban and rural inhabitants, eligibility for obtaining allocated rural land beinglimited to permanent residents of Peasant Associations, and the introduction of a passsystem and checkpoints along the main highways.All these policy measures and procedures had bearings on the dynamics of migrationduring the socialist regime (Baker, 1995). For instance, as the land policy in Ethiopiademanded permanent residence in a farming community in order to be eligible for a useright over a piece of land, most peasants had to confine themselves to rural areas.Desalegn stated that the land system discouraged peasant mobility and compelled thepopulation to eke out a living from the so-called ‘starvation plots’. He further argued thatimprovements in livelihoods are impossible unless a considerable portion of thispopulation is released from the land and moves out of the rural areas (Desalegn, 1994).The socialist government attempted to control migration and implemented planned‘resettlement’. In the first decade (1974–84), about 142,000 people were resettled(Pankhurst, 1988). Some researchers estimated that the number of resettled people duringthe period from 1974 through 1984 was as many as 187,000 individuals (Africa Watch,1991). Following the famine of 1984, the government resettled a further 700,000 people 2from the northern provinces of Wollo, Shewa and Tigray to the south-west provinces ofGojjam, Wellega, Illubabor and Kafa over the period of about two years ( Desalegn,1988). Nonetheless, the implementation of such planned resettlement schemes involvednegative consequences (numerous deaths and suffering of resettled people and the hostpopulations) and some researchers argued that planned resettlement involved smallernumbers compared to spontaneous rural-rural migration (Wood, 1981).The EPRDF Period (1991-to date)Important surveys such as the 1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia:Analytical Report at the National Level( CSA,1998); the 1999 National Labour ForceSurvey(CSA, 2000) and the Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey(CSA, 2001)) offera better picture about the dynamics of migration in the last decade in Ethiopia. Themigration status of the population based on the 1999 National Labour Force Survey ofEthiopia indicated that migration in Ethiopia was dominated by rural-urban patterns forboth long-term and seasonal migrants. This was followed closely by rural-rural migrationstreams and then by the urban-urban migration streams. The pattern of urban-ruralmigration during this period was insignificant.UNDP (2004) reported that about seventeen percent of the total population of Ethiopialive in urban areas and this is expected to reach twenty-nine percent by the year 2020Although the total urban population size is currently smaller than most African countries,2 Figures provided by the government Relief and Rehabilitation Commission were as low as 593,000people (Pankhurst, 1992:56).9