Migration and Rural-Urban Linkages in Ethiopia

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In sum, migration is coming to be seen as an integral part of the livelihoods of the poorand the not so poor in low-income countries. This migration reflects the spatial andtemporal aspects of livelihood systems involving movement between the residentiallocation of individuals and families, and the location and dynamics of labour markets. Inpredominantly agrarian societies like Ethiopia, seasonality on its own explains aconsiderable proportion of such spatial mobility, as does risk mitigation.This study, therefore, attempts to understand the forces, processes and consequences ofmigration in both the negative and the positive aspects for different actors, ranging fromthe individual to the household and community levels in both urban and rural settings.1.4.2. Perspectives on Urban and Rural Settings and Urban-Rural LinkagesThe understanding of rural-urban linkages is very much related to two spatial units; theurban centres and rural areas. Early studies of urban-rural linkages perceived urban andrural areas as separate entities on the grounds that they are different in their aspects ofoccupation, environment, population size, population density, heterogeneity of theinhabitants, mobility of the people and systems of interaction (Worku, 1995). Luis Wirth(1938) assumed mutually exclusive criteria including heterogeneous verses homogenouspopulation, densely verses sparsely settled population and industrial verses agriculturaleconomy to make distinction between urban and rural areas. Mitchell (1956) sharesForde’s analysis of the early stages of the urbanisation process in Africa and his labellingof an African urban migrant as a detached person from his childhood experience, hisareas of origin, neighbourhood and tribe since he viewed that the nature of urban andrural milieus were highly discrepant. Mitchell (1956) also shares similar notions andargued that urban migrants experience different lifestyles as the set of relationshipsamong groups of tribesmen in their rural home is very different from the set ofrelationships even among the same group.Since the 1960s, the above classic view of the urban-rural divide has been challenged on thegrounds that the early urban-rural study models were focusing on the static and one-sidedfeature of the two spatial settings. They failed to incorporate the dynamic changes in therural communities of origin, in the urban communities of destination and in the migrantsthemselves. Subsequent regional development studies revealed that urban and rural areasare two ends of one and the same continuum of social life joined through migration, and thatthere is a process of linkage and change brought about by the urbanisation of the ruralsetting and the ruralisation of urban life.The study by Abu-Lughod (1961) was a turning point in challenging previous assumptionsand justifying that there are no complete dichotomies between urban and rural areas, as largenumber of people in both spatial settings combine different income sources andenvironments in their livelihood. This leads to an increased level of integration andinteraction, which can blur the traditional urban–rural divide. Abu-Lughod’s contributionin the discourse is, therefore, the introduction of the importance of urban social networks18
and voluntary associations as a mechanism for providing socio-economic support toindividual migrants, and bridging the institutional gaps that can be created between urbanand rural settings.The concept of urban-rural linkages has gained more momentum when it began to beincorporated in regional development planning and implementation strategy. Hinderinkand Titus (1988) introduced the application of the urban-rural linkage through the growthcentre and the rural services centre strategies. While the growth centre strategy advocatesan urban industrial expansion in few selected growth centres with snowballing effects of‘modernising’ rural areas, the rural service centre strategy focuses on development ofsmall urban centres for their own development and that of their hinterlands. Both themarket and service centres approaches are considered to be engines of growth since theyserve as local market points for the produce of local farms, as collection centres forexported produces and as strategic junctions for connecting to global consumers.Furthermore, service centres can serve as a conduit for the injection of new agriculturalsupplies and technologies to rural areas and as medium points for accessing socialservices such as health, education, extension, administration and legal support betweencentres and hinterlands. However, the experiences of several developing countriesindicated that the spread effects of growth centres appeared to have little impact onsmaller centres and rural areas growth. This situation becomes quite visible when thegrowth centres maximise opportunities by maintaining strong economic linkages withextra-regional and global clients and suppliers (Funnel, 1976; Hinderink & Titus, 1988).Another aspect of linkage in the rural-urban interaction is envisaged through the impactthat rural areas create on the dynamics of urban centres and non-agricultural activities.This is justified on the grounds that, under stable macro conditions, an increase in foodgrain production would stimulate growth in agricultural related sectors such as trade,transport, services and industry (Dunham, 1991). This is particularly achieved throughforward consumption linkages (resulting from the expenditure of farm incomes on locallyproduced consumer goods and services), backward production linkages (manifested inthe absorption of agriculture inputs such as machinery and fertiliser), forward productionlinkages (generated from local processing of agricultural outputs) and commercialforward linkages (created through marketing of agricultural outputs, diversifying cropproduction and maximising technological choices) (Ranis, 1990).Ellis and Harris (2004) pointed out that making an absolute dichotomy betweendevelopment planning in rural and urban areas undermines the interdependent points ofproduction, consumption and market, which directly contribute to the creation of greatergross national output. The departure point for this study, therefore, emanates from theabove argument and suggests that one cannot make complete distinction between urbanand rural areas on the basis of the size and the functions of settlements.1.4.3. Spatial patterns, urban-rural linkages and labour flows in EthiopiaIn Ethiopia, attempts to make a distinction between urban and rural areas have mainly19
Page 1 and 2: Migration and Rural-Urban Linkages
Page 3 and 4: ABSTRACTThe paper examines key issu
Page 5 and 6: LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND MAPSTab
Page 7 and 8: Executive SummaryThis study attempt
Page 9 and 10: of development structure can serve
Page 11 and 12: The paper examines key issues affec
Page 13 and 14: functions. The improvement of physi
Page 15 and 16: agriculture, de-prioritisation of u
Page 17 and 18: The promulgation of ethnic-based fe
Page 19 and 20: including development policies and
Page 21 and 22: Proponents also argue that forms of
Page 23: Figure 2: Positive Links between Mi
Page 27 and 28: OSSREA (1995) presents the findings
Page 29 and 30: elated to marriage, notably moving
Page 31 and 32: Table 2: Reason for absenceFrequenc
Page 33 and 34: as well as Tigray, the following as
Page 35 and 36: Table 6: Location where household m
Page 37 and 38: survey in May 2004. Most of these,
Page 39 and 40: Table 9: Location where household m
Page 41 and 42: Table 11: Reason for absenceFrequen
Page 43 and 44: Dinki, Amhara: Out-migration trends
Page 45 and 46: Table 13: Household members away fr
Page 47 and 48: There are still considerable number
Page 49 and 50: 2.2.Type of work and livelihoods of
Page 51 and 52: Migrants work on different terms th
Page 53 and 54: technology and lifestyles. Furtherm
Page 55 and 56: false banana) and maize. Similarly,
Page 57 and 58: sell the alcoholic drink, areke, wh
Page 59 and 60: where there is a sugar plantation,
Page 61 and 62: Table 23: Type of support received
Page 63 and 64: 2.4. Preferences regarding urban ce
Page 65 and 66: urban sites, Kolfe and Shashemene,
Page 67 and 68: 2.6. Labour force and employment op
Page 69 and 70: egion was high and was not impeded
Page 71 and 72: LBox 2: List of migration experienc
Page 73 and 74: Case 5: ES, male, poor, seasonal /s
Page 75 and 76:
Case 11: AD, female, Oromia migrant
Page 77 and 78:
alleviated by appropriate rural dev
Page 79 and 80:
Successive Ethiopian governments to
Page 81 and 82:
in providing information about jobs
Page 83 and 84:
this recommendation but its impleme
Page 85 and 86:
Carney, D., 1998, Sustainable Rural
Page 87 and 88:
Kloos, H. (1988). "Ethiopia's Econo
Page 89 and 90:
Annex 1: The WeD-Research SitesMap
Page 91 and 92:
Map 4:Sketch map of Imdibir85
Page 93 and 94:
Map 6:Sketch map of Shashemene87
Page 95 and 96:
Map 8:Sketch map of Korodegaga89
Page 97:
Table 33: National Rural Migrants P
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