Teens on the move: an analysis of adolescent migration in rural South Africa

Bennett, Rachel (2013) Teens on the move: an analysis of adolescent migration in rural South Africa. International Conference on Population Geographies, Groningen, Netherlands. 25 - 28 Jul 2013.

Abstract

In South Africa, internal migration to access opportunities and to support family members is a commonplace experience during adolescence. Migration may lead to intentional or unintentional changes in adolescents’ social and residential arrangements that have positive or negative consequences for health and development. Circumstances of migration are known to influence the migration-wellbeing relationship. However the contexts of moves amongst adolescents, particularly in low and middle income settings, are poorly understood. This paper explores the relationship between propensity to migrate during adolescence in rural South Africa, and individual characteristics & life events, parental circumstances, housing quality and household composition, and wider support networks. Discrete time event history techniques are employed to investigate the contexts of migration amongst 12-17 year olds, using detailed longitudinal data from a demographic surveillance system in rural KwaZulu-Natal. The analysis focuses on differences in the circumstances of migration by relationship to biological parents and between accompanied and unaccompanied moves. The findings show that by age 18, 42% of adolescents who were resident in the study area on their 12th birthday had migrated at least once. Adolescents who shared household membership with both parents were significantly less likely to move than those who were co-members with one or neither parent. Almost half (45%) of all movers moved alone, and girls were significantly more likely to be engaged in unaccompanied migration than boys. Accompanied migration was associated with adolescents born to older parents and residing in smaller, recently-formed households. Unaccompanied migration was associated with adolescents who were not enrolled in school and residing in poor households, but with strong support networks beyond their initial household. The findings contribute to understanding the diverse contexts of migration during adolescence in rural South Africa, and are an important step in disentangling the relationships between migration and wellbeing at this formative stage of the life course

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