Hawassa University, Department of Rural Development and Family Sciences, P.O.Box 679, SNNPR, Awassa, Ethiopia
Regassa, N., Hawassa University, Department of Rural Development and Family Sciences, P.O.Box 679, SNNPR, Awassa, Ethiopia; Yusufe, A., Hawassa University, Department of Rural Development and Family Sciences, P.O.Box 679, SNNPR, Awassa, Ethiopia
The Southern Nations, Nationalities Peoples Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopian is experiencing one of the highest population growth rate (about 2.8 percent per annum) mainly as a result of very high fertility rate (Total Fertility Rate, TFR, of 5.9). Like in other parts of the country, rural-urban migration is an increasingly becoming common phenomenon mainly as direct response to environmental degradation and rural poverty. While there are interwoven socio-economic and ecological factors contribute to the migration of influx of people into the increasingly important medium sized urban areas of the region, the migration impacts on the migrants at destination (urban centers) is less researched, and hence, worth investigating. This article thus tries to examine the gender differentials of migration impacts at the place of destinations by taking the experiences of four major urban areas of the Southern Region (Awassa town, Wolkite town, Durame, and Soddo). The study is based on primary data collected from 821 urban migrants selected from four of the most populous districts (zone) of southern Ethiopia namely Sidama, Wolayita, Kembata Tembaro and Guraghe zones. The study has employed Chi-square analysis to examine the possible gender differentials of migration impacts at the place of destination. The study employed both the quantitative and qualitative approaches in the course of collecting and analyzing the data. The study has documented that there are certain gender differentials in the impacts of migration at the place of destination: Male migrants are more prone to some of the socio-economic problems (such as unemployment) than their counterpart female migrants. Similarly, female migrants are found to be more prone to some of urban problems (such as, lack of food, lack of adequate health service, homesickness, labor and sexual abuses and the like) than their counterpart male migrants. © Kamla-Raj 2009.