Motives and determinants of remittance from rural-urban migration: evidence from Southern Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

This study examined the determinants of the level of remittance from urban migrants to their families in rural areas using a sample of 665 rural-urban migrants and Tobit regression in Southern Ethiopia.Descriptive results revealed that most of rural-urban migrants were unmarried, better educated, and young. For instance, 84 percent of rural-urban migrants were unmarried, while 68 percent of rural-urban migrants aged between 15 and 25 years.The education level of 74 percent of rural-urban migrants was found between 5 and 10 years of schooling.The mean income, saving, and remittance of female migrants were lower than their male counterparts. Regression results of Tobit model indicated that age, gender, education level, frequency of visits, income, and saving of migrants positively and significantly related with the level of remittance from migrants. But family size of migrant-sending household and the intension to return back negatively and significantly related with the level of remittance. Provision of better education in origin areas and better-paying jobs in receiving areas would lead to higher remittance from migrants. The provision of off-farm employments in origin areas would reduce the current wave of rural-urban migration and this will lessen pressure on public services in receiving urban areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural-urban migration
• gender
• remittance
• Tobit model
• Ethiopia

Acknowledgements

First, we want to express our gratitude to Arba Minch University for its financial and logistic supports to complete this. Second, we also extend our thanks to government officials at Hawasa, Arba Minch, Soddo, and Hosaena towns for their help in providing valuable information and identifying sample kebeles in each sample town. Finally, we want to extend our gratitude to data collectors at Hawasa, Arba Minch, Soddo, and Hosaena towns for their time and efforts to provide us with dependable data.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fassil Eshetu

Fassil Eshetu is an Assistant Professor of Economics and PhD Scholar at Arba Minch University, Southern Ethiopia. His research interests involve rural-urban migration, food insecurity, poverty, vulnerability, resilience, livelihood diversification, international trade, and environmental conservation issues in Ethiopia.

Mohammed Beshir

Mohammed Beshir is a lecturer and PhD Scholar at Addis Ababa University. He has been working researches on rural-urban migration, rural poverty, income inequality, sustainable use of fishery resource, and Food Insecurity issues in Ethiopia.