Family Migration: A Vehicle of Child Morbidity in the Informal Settlements of Nairobi City, Kenya?

Parental migration is often found to be negatively correlated with child health in Africa, yet the causal mechanisms are poorly understood. The paper uses a dataset that provides information from the respondent parent on child morbidity both in the rural and urban settings. Households first endogenously determine whether they will gain from participating in migration and, if they do, whether they will leave the children behind or not. The final choice is made to ensure the optimal survival chances for the child. This paper contributes to understanding the health consequences of raising the children in the context of increasing urban poverty in Nairobi, Kenya. The findings indicate that households who migrated together with their children in the slums of Nairobi experience higher child morbidity (43 per cent have at least one sick child in the last one month) as compared to households who leave children in their upcountry homes (31 per cent of morbidity rate). Even though children of migrants are safer upcountry, not all households can afford this strategy. Households are able to choose this strategy only if they have a strong social support network in their origin community and/or they are big size households. This is an important finding in targeting the Millennium Development Goals.childhood morbidity, split migration, incidental truncation, informal settlements, Nairobi, Kenya

Family migration: a vehicle of child morbidity in the informal settlements of Nairobi City, Kenya?

Parental migration is often found to be negatively correlated with child health in Africa, yet the causal mechanisms are poorly understood. The paper uses a dataset that provides information from the respondent parent on child morbidity both in the rural and urban settings. Households first endogenously determine whether they will gain from participating in migration and, if they do, whether they will leave the children behind or not. The final choice is made to ensure the optimal survival chances for the child. This paper contributes to understanding the health consequences of raising the children in the context of increasing urban poverty in Nairobi, Kenya. The findings indicate that households who migrated together with their children in the slums of Nairobi experience higher child morbidity (43 per cent have at least one sick child in the last one month) as compared to households who leave children in their upcountry homes (31 per cent of morbidity rate). Even though children of migrants are safer upcountry, not all households can afford this strategy. Households are able to choose this strategy only if they have a strong social support network in their origin community and/or they are big size households. This is an important finding in targeting the Millennium Development Goals

Regionalism in West Africa : Do Polar Countries Reap the Benefits? : A Role for Migration

In the present globalization era an increasing attention is paid to the ambiguous relationship between international migration, brain drain, and economic growth, but few papers analyzed the growth impact of skilled migration. The paper filled the research gap by building the first dataset on brain drain from seven countries of the western African Union (WAEMU) and highlighted the size of the brain loss toward Côte d?Ivoire and France. Burkina Faso shows a more severe brain drain to Cote d?Ivoire compare to other similar sahelian countries whereas the reverse holds when considering the destination France. The subsequent empirical strategy consists in comparing the growth performance of an economy without migration to the counterpart economy. The regional growth convergence analysis shows higher convergence rate once the brain circulation is accounted for. However, the effect of brain gain holds only for countries with migration outside WAEMU toward an industrialized country (France) and failed when migration, as is the case for Burkina Faso, flows into Cote d?Ivoire the polar economy of the Union. Therefore, migration can be used as a powerful force working toward income convergence between capital-rich and capital-poor countries

Household migration decisions as survival strategy: the case of Burkina Faso

The paper examines the motivations behind the important migration from Burkina Faso to Côte d'Ivoire, the economic pole in the West African Economic and Monetary Union. The paper uses a detailed household survey dataset on migration, natural resource management, risk management and solidarity collected in 2000 and 2002 in Northeastern Burkina Faso. In addition to the household survey, two other village and institutional level surveys were conducted. The methodology emphasizes the linkage between economic theories and empirical evidence, using econometric tools that are robust to the selection bias. It enables to study the specificities of the seasonal migration and estimate migration incomes. The structural model of migration decision revealed the importance of migration as a mere survival strategy in the study regions confronted with severe scarcity of natural resources. Results supported that even under the pessimistic scenario where the direct benefits of the regional integration program would go exclusively to the polar economy, households in the Sahel may still benefit from an increased economic attractiveness of this destination. First, because it is seasonal, the increased migration will translate into higher liquidity that enables households to overcome credit and insurance market failures and invest in their main agropastoral activities. Second, an interesting finding is also the role of the unsecured livestock activity as impediment to migration of the pastoralist groups. The study recommended the development of policies that address security issues through well-functioning rural labor market institutions and enforceable rules regarding shepherd contracts. It is also important to enforce regional laws regarding the free movement of labor

Assessing the effect of mother's migration on childhood mortality in the informal settlements of Nairobi

Between one and two million migrants reside in cramped conditions in Nairobi's slums without proper access to sanitation or affordable clean water. Children in such areas are exposed to enormous risks, health risks in particular. Using longitudinal data collected every four months during the period between 2002 and 2004, we analyze their survival patterns of children under five year of age who resided in two informal settlements (Viwandani and Korogocho). The research question assumes that children born to recent migrant mothers are more likely to die. The assumption is that migrant mothers do not have social network, which translates to a lack of information and lower access to health facilities. In the subsequent event history analysis, childhood mortality is shown to remain very high in the Nairobi informal settlements, especially among new migrants. Given the high degree of rural urban migration, which is bound to increase in the foreseeable future for most African countries, our study raises critical public health concerns. Another important finding in the context of the HIV AIDS pandemic is the risk factor associated to the mortality among children who have lost their mother. Our study also demonstrated a persistent disadvantage of children born to migrant mothers irrespective the length of stay in the receiving zone. The latter seems to point out the difficulties for migrant to develop social network outside their area of origin

Household Migration Decisions as Survival Strategy: The Case of Burkina Faso

The paper examines the basic determinants behind the process of migration from Burkina Faso to Cote d’Ivoire. It uses a detailed household survey dataset on migration, natural resource management, risk management and solidarity collected in 2000 and 2002 in Northeastern Burkina Faso. In addition, two other village and institutional level surveys were conducted. The methodology emphasizes the link between economic theories and empirical evidence, using econometric tools that are robust to the selection bias. This enables to investigate the specificities of the seasonal migration and to estimate migration incomes. The structural model of migration decision revealed the importance of migration as a mere survival strategy in the study regions. Results showed that even under the pessimistic scenario where the direct benefits of the regional integration program would go exclusively to the leading economy, households in the Sahel may benefit from an increased economic attractiveness of this destination. Owing to the fact that the migration is seasonal, the increased migration will translate into higher liquidity that enables households to overcome credit and insurance market failures and invest in their main agro pastoral activities. Additionally, the role of the unsecured livestock activity acts as an impediment to migration of the pastoralist groups. The study recommended the development of policies that address security issues through well-functioning rural labor market institutions and enforceable rules regarding shepherd contracts. It is also important to enforce regional laws regarding the free movement of labor

Family migration: a vehicle of child morbidity in the informal settlements of Nairobi city, Kenya?

Parental migration is often found to be negatively correlated with child health in Africa, yet the causal mechanisms are poorly understood. The paper uses a dataset that provides information from the respondent parent on child morbidity both in the rural and urban settings. Households first endogenously determine whether they will gain from participating in migration and, if they do, whether they will leave the children behind or not. The final choice is made to ensure the optimal survival chances for the child. This paper contributes to understanding the health consequences of raising the children in the context of increasing urban poverty in Nairobi, Kenya. The findings indicate that households who migrated together with their children in the slums of Nairobi experience higher child morbidity (43 per cent have at least one sick child in the last one month) as compared to households who leave children in their upcountry homes (31 per cent of morbidity rate). Even though children of migrants are safer upcountry, not all households can afford this strategy. Households are able to choose this strategy only if they have a strong social support network in their origin community and/or they are big size households. This is an important finding in targeting the Millennium Development Goals.Childhood morbidity, Split migration, Incidental truncation, Informal settlements Nairobi, Kenya