Migration and Rural-Urban Linkages in Ethiopia

Case 11: AD, female, Oromia migrant, Kolfe SeferAD, was born in a place called Becho around Ginchi. She moved to Kolfe in 1995 when she was 18-yearsoldto live with her aunt. Her aunt decided to bring AD from her home area when she discovered that AD’sfather agreed to give her to an old man for marriage. AD is working as a housemaid and earns 60 birr permonth. AD feels that her migration to Kolfe allowed her to escape forced marriage involving rape andabduction. AD is also happy that she attends night schools in Kolfe.The case of AD illustrates how traditional practices such as parental arranged marriage;rape and abduction push rural young women to move out of their rural home areas.Case 12: SK, female, poor, longer-term migration, KolfeShe was born in a place called Wokeda in Imdibir Wereda. When she was 5-years-old her mother died. Thesame year one of her father’s relatives who went for the mourning of her mother brought her to AddisAbaba around the bus terminal. This was to ease the burden of her family and raise her well in AddisAbaba. When she was 7-years-old, her relatives gave her to another distant relative to work as a housemaid.She began light work such as cleaning the house, serving as a porter, coffee boiling and washing dishes.She had lived in this second house until she was 21-years-old. Three years ago, she decided to live by herself and rented a house. She began to work in a kebele club with a salary of 75 birr per month. In duecourse, she got married informally with a man who is a taxi assistant and gave birth to a baby boy.Unfortunately she got divorced not long after she delivered the boy. She is now working as a street vendor.She feels bad for being raised in a different family since her early childhood. Life in Kolfe is still full ofchallenges and hardship.The case of SK indicates how family breakdown at every young age threatens the futurelife of a girl and necessitates the mobility of young females from rural to urban areas. Thewell being of SK did not substantially improve as she ended up with divorce and streetvendingCase 13: LD, male, poor, seasonal, short-term migration, Imdibir.He was born in a place called Haya Gasha in Imdibir Wereda. He has six children and lives mainly fromfarming cereal and root crops. He has never migrated on a long-term basis. During hunger seasons, hisbrother, who lives in Addis Ababa, sends him cash to buy food and get income from sheep fattening. Heoften travels to Aftir and Agena to buy sheep and fatten them for sale. He often carries through difficulttimes by diversifying his income, smoothing his consumption by eating amicho roots of crops and earningadditional income from sheep rearing.The case of LD demonstrates the importance of seasonal migration for adult men and itsimportance to smoothing seasonal food insecurity.69