Social and psychological factors influencinng migration disposition in Kenya
Abstract
This study attempts to identify some of ·the causes
of migration disposition based on a field investigation
conducted on a sample of the young rural population in
Kenya in 1979.
The motivation for this study stemn1ed from the fact
that migration is frequently seen as undesirable and the
Such migration frequently results in a loss of the most
talented young people from the rural areas The migration
of young adult an~ adult males leaves many rural
households without male heads. Within urban areas, migration
contributes substantially to the high rates of
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urban population growth and the associated problems,
such as under- and unemployment, housing shortages and
the shortage of basic infrastructure. Moreover, the
lack of agreement about the causes of' migration has
greatly reduced the~ ability of policy makers to control
this process.
Continuing migration from the rural areas indicates
that the process is performing a role in these rural
communities. To understand migration in this established
form calls for an examination of the factors
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operating in the premigration stage that dispose some
people to migrate and others riot to migrate.
. ' This study assumes that people's behaviour is motivated
by their attitudes and attitudes are to a large
extent socially determined. Migration depositions is
thus behaviour determined by conditions in the rural
communities. New attitudes appear to have emerged in
rural communities and migration appears to be the means
through which they can be realized and it is sanctioned,
and norms to induce conformity to the migration behavior
have emerged. In other words, migration appears
to have become~ a socially accepted behaviour. The rural
society is socializing the young to expect to migrate
in future. Thus migration dispositions are examined
within the~ socio-cultural milieu where attitudes to
migrate are formed.
The log-linear modeling used to analyze the data
confirms that factors in the objective~ environment,
normative factors, and psychological factors determine
migration dispositions. These findings ~suggest that
young people will continue to be disposed to migrate
from the rural areas as they continue to westernize.
Citation
A thesis submitted to the population studies and research institute as partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of master of arts (population studies), university of NairobiPublisher
Institute of population Studies and research