Factors explaining the reasons for internal migration in Uganda.

Abstract

The study sought to analyze the factors responsible for internal migration in Uganda with different specific objectives that aimed at: assessing the influence of demographic characteristics on internal migration; establishing the influence of socio-economic characteristics on internal migrants and; establishing whether the work motive overrides the social reasons in the decision to migrate by different regions. The study used data from the 2005 /2006 Uganda National Household Survey collected by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. The analyses were done by univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistical methods in which reasons for migration was the dependent variable (migration for work being the reference category). In the analysis, age was found to be a statistically significant factor in reducing the likelihood of migrating for marriage reasons than for work. Also, females were more likely to migrate for marriage reasons than for work compared to their male counterparts and this was found to be statistically significant. The study was able to establish that individuals from Eastern, Northern and Western were significantly more likely to migrate for marriage than work as opposed to those in the Central Uganda. Results established that insecurity was significant in determining migration in Northern Uganda while in the central region; the reason for migration was economic. Although it was hypothesized that higher levels of education and increase in age would be associated with the likelihood of migrating internally for other reasons than work, results from the analysis provide partial support for this hypothesis; that is, age and increasing educational attainment decreases the likelihood of migrating for other reasons for one age group and level of educational attainment that is, 21-30 and primary level of education respectively. One key recommendation was that the government should encourage the drifting of people to other regions by making available such amenities that would encourage potential migrants stay.