Spatial Analysis of Distribution and Socio-economic Impacts of Immigration: Case Study of Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Increasing globalization trends have made migration a key element in national and international deliberations worldwide. Mapping of immigrant issues has therefore gained prominence in many parts of the world. In Kenya the management of foreigners or aliens is one of the core functions of the Department of Immigration Services with the mandate of enhancing security and socio-economic development through policy and management strategies targeting immigrant populations. However, due to inadequate use of available technology a number of potential datasets still remain largely unexploited including data on visas and work permits, border-post data and passenger surveys at international airports and seaports. This study proposes a spatial approach to enable tracking, analyses, visualization and management of alien activities. This entailed the geo-coding of immigrant residential addresses and linking this with their respective attributes to enable input, storage, manipulation and analysis using appropriate spreadsheet and GIS software. The results were visualized using various maps, charts, figures and tables. The study demonstrated that migration and development are closely related and create impact in various perspectives and proportions. Furthermore, geospatial technology has great potential for organizing, manipulating and analyzing migration data and information and can enable the department to use a variety of maps and documents to interpret and better understand immigrant activities, including major patterns of migration; settlement patterns and changing environmental preferences.