1,721,091 research outputs found
Teens on the move: an analysis of adolescent migration in rural South Africa
No full textIn South Africa, internal migration to access opportunities and to support family members is a commonplace experience during adolescence. Migration may lead to intentional or unintentional changes in adolescents’ social and residential arrangements that have positive or negative consequences for health and development. Circumstances of migration are known to influence the migration-wellbeing relationship. However the contexts of moves amongst adolescents, particularly in low and middle income settings, are poorly understood. This paper explores the relationship between propensity to migrate during adolescence in rural South Africa, and individual characteristics & life events, parental circumstances, housing quality and household composition, and wider support networks. Discrete time event history techniques are employed to investigate the contexts of migration amongst 12-17 year olds, using detailed longitudinal data from a demographic surveillance system in rural KwaZulu-Natal. The analysis focuses on differences in the circumstances of migration by relationship to biological parents and between accompanied and unaccompanied moves. The findings show that by age 18, 42% of adolescents who were resident in the study area on their 12th birthday had migrated at least once. Adolescents who shared household membership with both parents were significantly less likely to move than those who were co-members with one or neither parent. Almost half (45%) of all movers moved alone, and girls were significantly more likely to be engaged in unaccompanied migration than boys. Accompanied migration was associated with adolescents born to older parents and residing in smaller, recently-formed households. Unaccompanied migration was associated with adolescents who were not enrolled in school and residing in poor households, but with strong support networks beyond their initial household. The findings contribute to understanding the diverse contexts of migration during adolescence in rural South Africa, and are an important step in disentangling the relationships between migration and wellbeing at this formative stage of the life cours
Exploring the circumstances of adolescent unaccompanied migration in rural South Africa
No full textIn South Africa, internal migration to access opportunities and to support family members is a commonplace experience during adolescence. Migration may lead to intentional or unintentional changes in adolescents’ social and residential arrangements that have positive or negative consequences for health and development. Circumstances of migration are known to influence the migration-wellbeing relationship. However the contexts of moves amongst adolescents, particularly in low and middle income settings, are poorly understood. This paper explores the relationship between propensity to migrate during adolescence in rural South Africa, and individual characteristics & life events, parental circumstances, housing quality and household composition, and wider support networks. Discrete time event history techniques are employed to investigate the contexts of migration amongst 12-17 year olds, using detailed longitudinal data from a demographic surveillance system in rural KwaZulu-Natal. The analysis focuses on differences in the circumstances of migration by relationship to biological parents and between accompanied and unaccompanied moves. The findings show that by age 18, 42% of adolescents who were resident in the study area on their 12th birthday had migrated at least once. Adolescents who shared household membership with both parents were significantly less likely to move than those who were co-members with one or neither parent. Almost half (45%) of all movers moved alone, and girls were significantly more likely to be engaged in unaccompanied migration than boys. Accompanied migration was associated with adolescents born to older parents and residing in smaller, recently-formed households. Unaccompanied migration was associated with adolescents who were not enrolled in school and residing in poor households, but with strong support networks beyond their initial household. The findings contribute to understanding the diverse contexts of migration during adolescence in rural South Africa, and are an important step in disentangling the relationships between migration and wellbeing at this formative stage of the life cours
Contexts of migration across childhood: evidence from rural South Africa
No full textExposure to migration is an important yet unstudied indicator of children’s social and physical environments in many low and middle countries. In South Africa, migration to access caregivers and educational opportunities, support family households and accompany family members are commonplace childhood experiences. Existing studies have found evidence of positive and/or negative relationships between measures of migration and child wellbeing. However analyses and understanding of the patterns, triggers and experiences of children’s migration are limited. The aims of this paper are (i) to propose an approach to measuring children’s migration focused on relationship to co-movers, origin household structure and childhood stage and (ii) to present empirical results on the contexts of children’s migration in South Africa using longitudinal data from a demographic surveillance system in rural KwaZulu-Natal. The empirical work uses event history techniques to describe migration behaviour during infancy, preschool, middle childhood and adolescence, and to examine the relationships between propensity to migrate and individual and parental characteristics and life events, wider support networks, housing quality and household composition in relation to the migration typology. Key results include (i) strong relationships between measures of support networks and moves which do not involve the whole household, (ii) increasing relevance of paternal characteristics for propensity to migrate during later childhood stages, and (iii) the importance of individual characteristics and life events such as gender, childbirth and educational status for moves during the final childhood stage, adolescence. The paper contributes to efforts to conceptualise and measure children’s migration and documents the circumstances in which children migrate in rural South Africa<br/
Infants on the move: Residential mobility in single parent households in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
No full textInfancy is a stage of the life course where the circumstances and consequences of residential mobility are poorly understood. This paper explores the migration of infants born into households with their mother but not father in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; a setting where childcare arrangements are often dynamic and there have been increases in female internal migration and labour force participation. The study utilises event history analysis to study the occurrence and correlates of infant migration drawing on data from the Africa Centre Demographic Information System (n=8865). The results show 16% of children are engaged in accompanied migration by their second birthday and a further 6% are engaged in unaccompanied migration. Accompanied migration is associated with infants whose mothers migrated into the household a short time prior to their birth; suggesting mothers return temporarily before childbirth. Unaccompanied infant migration is associated with having a younger mother, or having a mother who dies or out-migrates. The findings suggest household composition at the origin has an important influence on infant mobility, that a substantial proportion of infants who migrate are not accompanied, but there are nonetheless interrelationships between maternal life events and infants’ migration. Further, the paper demonstrates the value of child-centric analyses for understanding young children’s residential mobility in contexts where infants do not necessarily migrate concurrently to parents and the value of longitudinal data for examining the interplay among migration, residential histories and other life events amongst young children and their families
Early years' migration in rural South Africa
No full textInfancy represents a stage of the life course where the circumstances of migration are poorly understood, particularly in developing country contexts. In South Africa, infants often have complex living arrangements as care responsibilities are shared between multiple family members. Low marriage rates and high levels of male and female migration have contributed to dynamic life trajectories amongst parents. This paper explores the relationships between propensity to migrate in the early years and parental circumstances and life events, wider kin networks, housing quality and household composition. Discrete time event history modelling is employed to identify factors associated with migration in the first two years of life, using data from a demographic surveillance system in rural northern KwaZulu Natal. The results indicate that 19% of children born in the surveillance area between 2005 and 2008 migrated at least once by their second birthday. However, only a minority of the children who moved (17%) were engaged in whole household migration. Household migration was most common amongst children born into small two-parent households. The majority (84%) of infants who did not migrate with all other members of their household retained social membership of their initial household. This form of migration was associated with having social ties to other households. The influence of parental circumstances varied by whether children shared household membership with both parents or their mother only at birth. The findings contribute to understanding the contexts of early years migration and are an important step in unravelling the relationships between exposure to migration and wellbeing across childhoo
Understanding children’s involvement in migration & implications for accessing services in rural South Africa
No full textMigration is an important yet unstudied indicator of children’s social and physical environments in many low and middle countries. In rural South Africa, unaccompanied parental migration, as well as children’s own migration to access caregivers and educational opportunities, support family households and/or accompany migrant family members, are commonplace childhood experiences. However, quantitative analyses of children’s migration are scarce, limiting the development of policies to support mobile families and the design of studies that seek to disentangle the circumstances in which children benefit from migration and when they may be made vulnerable. This paper uses longitudinal data from a demographic surveillance system in rural KwaZulu-Natal to describe children’s direct experiences of migration: when children themselves migrate, and children’s indirect experiences of migration: when parent(s) migrate without children. The results show that 12% of children (0-17 years) migrated at least once in a one year period; on a third of these occasions the child was ‘unaccompanied’. Over one quarter (28%) of children were indirectly exposed to migration by parent(s) who are members of their household out-migrating. However for just over half of children one or both of their parents were not known to be deceased but not considered members of their household, highlighting the challenges associated with identifying children of migrant parents in this context. Based on these findings, the paper discusses methodological considerations for family migration studies in populations with high levels of both adult and child mobility and highlights their significance for promoting access to education and child welfare services in South Africa
Household members' migration and the education of children ‘left behind’: empirical findings from Tajikistan and reflections for research practice
No full textThere is growing recognition that when a household member migrates, there is a complex range of social as well as economic consequences for the everyday lives of those who remain in the origin household. This paper examines the children left behind phenomenon in Tajikistan, a country with very high rates of international labour migration. With the use of data from the Tajikistan 2007 Living Standards Survey, logistic regression modelling is applied to examine the impact of fathers', mothers', siblings', and other household members' migration on the school enrolment of secondary school-aged children. The results show that there is a significant positive association between longer-term parental migration and children's enrolment, whereas the long-term migration of siblings sending remittances and the mid-term migration of ‘other household members’ (not parents or siblings) are both significantly negatively associated with children's enrolment. The findings highlight the importance of considering differences between children left behind
Understanding family migration in rural South Africa: exploring children's inclusion in the destination households of migrant parents
Full text linkDespite the removal of restrictions on movement and increasing female participation in migration, only a minority of migrant parents in South Africa include their children in their destination household. Quantitative analyses of the circumstances in which children accompany a migrant parent have been limited by the lack of available data that document family arrangements from the perspective of more than one household. This paper uses data about members of rural households in a demographic surveillance population in KwaZulu-Natal and a linked sample survey of adult migrants to examine factors associated with children's inclusion in the destination household of migrant parents, analyse the timing and sequence of children's moves to parental destination households, and describe the composition of parental origin and destination households. The findings confirm that in contemporary South Africa, only a small percentage (14%) of migrants' children who are members of the parental origin household are also members of the parental destination household. Membership of the parental destination household is associated with parental characteristics and the child's age, but not measures of socio-economic status, and children most commonly migrate several years after their migrant parent. Children included in the destination household of migrant fathers frequently live in small households, which also include their mother, whereas children included in the destination household of migrant mothers live in larger households. This study contributes to understanding the contexts of children's inclusion in parental destination households in South Africa and demonstrates the potential of data collected in migrants' origin and destination households
An approach to measuring dispersed families with a particular focus on children 'left behind' by migrant parents: findings from rural South Africa
Full text linkThere is growing policy and academic interest in the conditions, experiences, and well-being of migrant families stretched across origin and destination households. In South Africa, the dispersal of children and migrant parents across multiple households is a commonplace childhood experience. However, in common with the broader international context, quantitative analyses of the social and residential connections between children and migrant parents in South Africa have been limited by the lack of available data that document family arrangements from the perspective of more than one household. This paper describes a new data collection effort in the origin and destination households of migrants from rural KwaZulu-Natal and explains the methodology for using this data to examine multiple household contexts for children and parents. In order to illustrate the contribution that this form of data collection effort could make to family migration studies, the paper also presents results on the living arrangements of children ‘left behind’ by migrant parents; a potentially vulnerable group whose arrangements are challenging to examine with existing data sources. The empirical results show the majority (75%) of left behind children have previously migrated and a significant proportion of migrants' children (25%) were not living in their parent's origin or destination household. The findings highlight the need for careful measurement of the circumstances of left behind children and demonstrate the contribution of linked data for providing insights into the residential arrangements of migrants' children
Gender differentials and old age survival in the Nairobi slums, Kenya
Full text linkThis paper examines gender differentials in survival amongst older people (50+ years) in the Nairobi slums and to the best of our knowledge is the first study of its kind in an urban African setting. The results provide evidence contrary to the expected paradox of poorer self-rated health yet better survival amongst older women. Older women in the Nairobi slums have poorer self-rated health and poorer circumstances across other factors, including disability and socio-economic status. Further, older women in the slums do not have better survival. The conventional female advantage in mortality only becomes apparent after accounting for the cumulative influence of individual characteristics, social networks, health and socio-economic status, suggesting the female advantage in unadjusted old-age mortality does not apply to contexts where women experience significant disadvantage across multiple life domains. This highlights the urgent need to redress the support, status and opportunities available for women across the life course in contexts such as the Nairobi slums. In addition, a greater number of factors differentiate mortality risk amongst men than amongst women, suggesting inequality amongst slum dwelling older men and highlighting the need for gender sensitive interventions which account for the particular needs of both genders in old age
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