Internal Migration and Poverty in KwaZulu-Natal: Findings from Censuses, Labour Force Surveys and Panel Data

In a globalising world, the pace of human mobility has increased alongside flows of capital and goods. Regional integration and trade liberalisation have accompanied these trends and have, arguably, received more attention from both academic researchers and policymakers. Human movement, however, cannot be de-linked from other social and economic events and it is becoming critical to undertake research that identifies the links between human migration and these events.

THE DYNAMICS OF EMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY IN SOUTH AFRICA: an empirical enquiry based on the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Survey.

This study explores the dynamics of employment and poverty in South Africa. Specifically, it is aimed at understanding, over time, the change in household well-being that occurs as a result of the employment types of household members. Secondly, the study explores the relationship between household worker combination and self employment activities, in other words, what are the odds of a household getting better as a result of income accrued from self-employment activities and how is this linked, if at all, to employment of other members of the household. This study will contribute to the debate on poverty and the labour market and that on the relationship between the formal and informal economies. The study relied on secondary data analysis from the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Survey. Instead of establishing a poverty line, the entire distribution was ranked on the basis of deciles. Decile transitions were then established with respect to household worker combinations and participation in self-employment activities. The analysis of the data revealed a range of worker types. The dominant househol