This thesis explores the nexus of acculturation, translocalism and wellbeing of rural migrants
in an ethnically plural society in the Kenyan Rift Valley. The study contains three interrelated
essays. The first essay contests the overgeneralised representations that deny the diversity of
migration outcomes. Building on the common themes of migration, "why people move" and
"migrants' settlement experiences", the essay explores the diversity of rural-rural migration
and settlement experiences and the extent to which migrants can settle in the Rift Valley. It
uses in-depth interviews to characterise a broadly defined immigrant group such as migrants
from western Kenya, based on their motivations for migration, premigration expectations,
post-migration reality, and settlement trajectories. The results demonstrate how migrant
characteristics and reasons for migration shape the degrees to which migrants settle in the
destination localities, paying particular attention to the settlement trajectories taken by
migrants who cannot permanently settle in the Rift Valley's rural milieu.
The second essay brings in the analysis acculturation process for internal migrants in
ethnically diverse societies; in doing so, it builds a more comprehensive picture of the
dynamics of acculturation in the Rift Valley, a region in Kenya where internal migration is
often a cause of hostility and deep-seated ethnic intolerance between internal migrants and
their hosts. Data on the perceived relative importance of nine migrant characteristics to four
acculturation preferences, namely marginalisation, separation, assimilation, and integration, is
collected through a survey-based vignette experiment. The vignette experiment's data is
analysed using a conditional logistic regression model. Perceptions arising from the results
suggest that the factors exerting the most substantial influence on acculturation processes
were levels of education and experience of ethnic discrimination. The chapter is concluded by
relating the findings to policies designed to enhance the experience of acculturation in the
hope of achieving more positive outcomes.
The final essay analyses the nexus of translocal linkages, acculturation, and three dimensions
of wellbeing: subjective, economic, and relational wellbeing, thus building on the theorisation
that a more significant number of African migrants will continue to maintain ties to their rural
origin provided that neither the wage level at destination nor the livelihood activities in the
place of origin suffice to support an average migrant household. The chapter utilises cross�sectional data collected from a sample of 301 migrants in the Rift Valley. The marginal
effects and the significance level of different translocal linkages and acculturation strategies
affecting the subjective, economic and relational wellbeing were estimated using an
unconstrained generalised ordered logit model. The results suggest that, although subjective,
economic and relational wellbeing are affected differently by varied translocal linkages,
employment status is of more substantial importance for wellbeing than translocal linkages
and acculturation strategies
