Poverty, Youth and Rural-Urban Migration in Ethiopia. Migrating out of Poverty RPC Working Paper 17

Abstract

This paper explores the relationships between poverty and rural-urban migration in Ethiopia. It draws on research particularly on migration for work in the construction industry and domestic work. It describes and analyses migration from a poor rural woreda (district) in northern Ethiopia, to the nearby city of Bahir Dar and the capital Addis Ababa. Extreme poverty is one of the main driving factors behind these flows of migration. The research suggests that migration of this type does not lead to immediate flows of remittance income from migrants to their households. There are nevertheless important non-economic factors and long-term strategies that encourage migration even where working conditions are hard and returns are low