Migration and Rural-Urban Linkages in Ethiopia

There are still considerable numbers of children from poor families who move to ruralareas like Itaya to pursue their education, living with their relatives. In addition, somechildren from relatively wealthy families move to towns like Nazareth where the qualityof schools is better. The majority of those who move for education are male, as mostfemales do not continue beyond grade 4 in the kebele primary school and are forced tomarry at a young age. In addition, some male children move to attend religious educationin places like Harar, Bale, Shashemene, Dilla, Jimma and Dire Dawa. There are also boysas young as ten years old who migrate to herd cattle and tend crops in rural areas.During the Imperial Period, most of the adult male migrants visited Bale AdministrativeRegion to visit a religious leader called Shekina Hussein. Many people, men and women,used to visit the Sheikh at his house, believing that he could give them spiritual support.During the time of the Derg Regime this pattern of migration weakened. It is to berecalled that the Socialist Regime wan to allowing religious rights and the CulturalRevolution was meant to change such believes.Our respondents agree that the rate of all types of migration, including seasonal, longtermand distress, to adjacent wereda have declined during the past five years. Theprevalence of drought and poverty in most of the adjacent wereda and the weakening ofkinship support mechanisms are reported to have discouraged migration to neighbouringwereda, which used to be attractive sites for migrants in the past. On the other hand, theexpansion of irrigation-based agricultural activities both community and privately owned,have created good working opportunities for the poor people who earn their living asdaily labourers. This group of people have are less likely to move to distant areas.Table 16: Household members away from the village in May 2004Male Female TotalFrequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency PercentageUrban area of this wereda 11 24 3 7 14 30Rural area of this wereda 8 17 5 11 13 28Rural area of region 5 11 7 15 12 26Urban area of this region 1 2 3 7 4 9Rural area of this ward 2 4 0 0 2 4In this village 1 2 0 0 1 2Total 28 61 18 39 46 100Table 16 indicates that local areas dominate the destinations of absentees fromKorodegaga. At the time of the survey, nobody was outside the Oromia region, and themajority (sixty-four percent) were within the same wereda. Urban areas were commondestinations, accounting for thirty-nine percent of absentees. Additionally absentees werepredominantly male (sixty-one percent) with a particularly high proportion of menvisiting nearby urban locations.41