Livelihood Strategies and Challenges of Rural to Urban Migrants in Addis Ababa

Abstract

The motivation for this study was the existing problem in Ethiopia associated with the accelerated movement of population towards Addis Ababa. Accordingly, this study has tried to narrow the knowledge gap in relation to migrants’ livelihood strategy by concentrating on Street Vendors, Shoe Shiners, Daily Laborers and housemaids in Addis Ababa. Hence the main objective of this study is to uncover the livelihood strategies of migrants of Amhara, SNNP, Oromia and Tigray regional states in Addis Ababa particularly in KolfaKeraniyo and Yeka sub cities. The study has purposely addressed migrants from the 4 regional states considered as highly populated than others as well as it has targeted the two sub cities as representatives of the other sub cities considering their geographical position and expected number of migrants as cited in Agrinet (2001). In order to achieve its objectives, the study employed a cross sectional study design. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches as well as primary and secondary sources of data were employed by the study. The number of samples was 348 addressed through the self-administered questionnaire and FGD methods. The study has made sex and place of origin of the respondents’ as the major cross cutting variables. Most of the respondents are working in one of the 4 mentioned informal sector jobs but very few of them are satisfied with the income generated to support their livelihoods. As indicated by the findings, there is a statistically significant relationship between the respondents’ place of origin and their employment type as well as with their level of income. Migrants within the age group of 21 to 23 accounts for majority (95.5%) of the total samples. On the other hand no formal education is attained by most of the respondents. Migrants to Addis Ababa also have more chances to be exposed to different challenges and in most cases the migrants prefer to get advice from their friends and relatives. The respondents of the study have used different strategies to tackle the challenges of the city life while only few of them are successful. Female migrants are more exposed to different challenges than male, while there are also very few cases that female migrants have better chances to get not to be exposed to serious challenges unlike male migrants. Accordingly, migration from the four regional states to Addis Ababa has its own patterns and strategies which are developed by the migrants through time. Different socio economic statuses play significant roles in shaping the migrants preferences in an effort to cope up with the city environment.