Household differentials and the individual decision to migrate to South Africa : the case of Gweru city in Zimbabwe.

Abstract

Zimbabweans of all walks of life have crossed over to South Africa since the late 1990s for long and short periods of time, some of them even remaining there permanently. The increased amount of the migration is largely blamed on Zimbabwe’s socio-economic and political instability by most scholars. However, each individual would eventually migrate because of pressure that usually comes from the household. Hence, this study was aimed at investigating household influence on an individual’s decision to migrate to South Africa. This study was carried out in the central Zimbabwean city of Gweru. A household survey was conducted and basic descriptive analyses were used to generate the findings. The results indicate that only 2% of the households in the sample did not have a migrant in another country. Also, about 43.7% of all migrants were females and among those female migrants who have children, 45.7% of them had children younger than five years staying home when they left for South Africa. Most households seem to have a strong influence on the migration decision, and as a result the majority of the migrants send remittances back home.