Migration and labour force participation: an analysis of internal economic migrants in Gauteng, South Africa, 2011

ABSTRACT

Historically Gauteng has always been the centre of attraction for the migrants from other parts of the country in search of economic opportunities and a better life. What has always been the question was whether Gauteng is able to absorb this flow of migrants mainly from rural areas into its workforce economically. Using 2011 census data the paper attempts to identify demographic and socio-economic characteristics that are significantly linked to employ and unemployed migrants that have settled in Gauteng and which age-groups have a better chance of finding employment in either the province of the origin or in Gauteng. The analysis is conducted at three levels, i.e., univariate, bivariate and multivariate using statistical techniques such as frequency tables, graphs of cross-tabulations, chi-square and binary logistics regression. The results show that specific individual and socio-economic characteristics are significant and highly associated with employed or unemployed migrants who have settled in Gauteng.

KEYWORDS:

• Internal migration
• socio-economic characteristics
• employment levels
• spatial distribution

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The study focuses on domestic migrants only. We want to look at who were attracted by Gauteng from elsewhere in the country and what was their economic impact on the province.

2. The reason for this is because migrants do not necessarily take market imperfections, varieties within communities, or structural constraints of migration destination economies into account when they migrate. Also, factors other than employment opportunities – such as access to the social and economic services which cities offer – are sometimes prime motivations for migration (Arango, 2000; De Haas, 2010; Mlambo, 2018).

3. In exceptional cases, however, social-structural factors such as traditional rural tenure forms can have the opposite effect. It can absorb surplus labour in rural areas, slowing rural-urban migration down, even if the urban sector is modern and able to absorb more labour (Standing, 1981).