THE RURAL BIAS OF FIRST GENERATION RURAL-URBAN MIGRANTS : EVIDENCE FROM KENYA MIGRATION STUDIES

Abstract

There is overwhelming evidence in sub-Saharan Africa that rural-urban migrants do not break links with their rural origins. The migrants are "men of two worlds" (Houghton, 1960) co-existing in two geographi­ cally separated households - one rural, the other urban. African rural-urban migration has persisted since the colonial period primarily because of the “urban bias" of the development process (Lipton, 1977) which confers many advantages to urban areas. The process has created "morselized households" (Kuznets, 1976) which tend to develop support systems at the polarised locales of migration, but which constitutes one family so divided by the process. Rural-urban migration is a direct outcome of economic disequilibrium which characterizes dual economies consisting of the modern sector which provides wage employment and the traditio­ nal subsistence sector in which the majority of population lives. Kenyan rural-urban migration exemplifies the sub- Saharan African case evolving from the country's colonial history. The modern sector of Kenya's economy evolved in the former "While Highlands" where a modern agricultural economy and a few small towns constituted the centre which was constantly dependent upon a large reservoir of cheap labour from the underdeveloped peri­ phery, made up of the so-called African Reserves. An urban primacy emerged in Kenya as the capital city of Nairobi amassed everything that represents development, with Mombasa at the Kenyan Coast becoming the gateway to international trade. Given the inadequacy of census data to provide dependable information about rural-urban migration, analysis of the process in Kenya has generally depended upon survey data which have been generated by a small number of migration or migration- centred studies. This paper attempts to demonstrate that Kenya's "urban bias" of development has resulted in temporary rural-urban migration which necessitates migrants "rural bias" in terms of their orientation, subsequent moves and their ultimate return to the permanent domicile. It consists of three sections : the first describes the configuration of development and the resulted migration in Kenya, placing their relationship in the context of Zelinsky's (1971) theoretical framework ; section two presents evidence of migrants'rural bias ; and the third section concludes the study.

LA MORTALITE PERINATALE EN AFRIQUE NOIRE : NIVEAUX, TENDANCES ET FACTEURS DE RISQUE

Abstract

Contrairement aux pays deveioppes dont la mortalite a fortement diminue depuis le siecle dernier (D. Tabutin, 1981), les pays d'Afrique presentent encore aujourd'hui une mortalite tres elevee, dont les facteurs restent peu analyses. Aussi, est-il souhaitable que des recherches soient effectuees dans ce domaine, car elles, seules, permettront d'indiquer les elements d u n e bonne politique sociale et sanitaire. Durant ces dernieres annees, de nombreux travaux ont ete realises sur les niveaux de la mortalite infantile et juvenile (E. Akoto, 1985 ; A. Hill, 1987). Mais, a notre connaissance, aucune etude n'a encore ete realisee, sur 1 ensemble du continent, pour la mortalite perinatale. II est probable que celle-ci y presente des niveaux nettement moins preoccupants que ceux de la mortalite infantile. Toutefois, comme ses facteurs exercent egalement leur influence sur la probability de mourir durant la periode post-neonatale (G. Masuy- Stroobant, 1985), il est expedient de l'etudier, car sa baisse se repercute finalement sur 1'ensemble de la mortalite des enfants. Les analyses proposees ci-apres poursuivent, ainsi, deux objectifs principaux : la presentation des resultats obtenus, au cours des dernieres annees, sur les niveaux et sur la variation differentielle de cette mortalite, et la suggestion de quelques approches methodologiques susceptibles d'ameliorer la qualite des etudes sur la mortalite des enfants en Afrique Noire ( 1).

AN OVERVIEW OR RURAL MIGRATION AND AGRICULTURAL LABOUR FORCE STRUCTURE IN AFRICA*

Abstract

Africa's predominantly rural population is located in areas where most inhabitants do not have ready access to social amenities, land and capital. Over the past two decades or more, the living standards of this destitute group have deteriorated with the result that increasing poverty has been associated with widespread underem­ ployment and rural exodus (Adepoju, 1979 ; Ghai and Radwan, 1983). Indeed, it has been suggested in the literature that maldistribution and access to land is a cause of rural poverty and rural exodus, thus the land tenure system and land ownership cannot be divorced from the incidence and rate of rural migration and agrarian change (Dasgupta, 1980 ; Connell et al, 1976 ; Eicher and Baker, 1982 ). Among the major components of demographic change, migration exerts both the strongest and fastest impact on the development process : it influences and is in turn shaped by the employment situation and especially the age structure of the population. In general, all socio-economic policies and programmes have both direct and indirect, expected and unanticipated effects on migration. Hence in the African context, the following areas of migration-agricultural interrelationships are pertinent : - the extent - and how - land use adjusts to family labour availability and the need for the increasingly expensive and scarce migrant labour ; the effect of population pressure on migration, patterns of land use, agricultural productivity and rate of adoption of technical innovation in agriculture (Ahmed, 1977) ; socio-economic and production characteristics of different regions and sectors, their relation to the level and distribution of income and the implications for migration and related policy issues ; and very importantly the causes, magnitude, pattern, characte­ristics and role of migration (inmigration, return migration and out-migration) in the rural areas with respect to agricultural development.