An Exploratory Study of Child Out-migration in Ethiopia: The Gurage Case
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Date
2007-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
There are various interrelated and diverse factors that motive or push children to migrate
from their place of origin to the cities. This research explores the causes that push or motivate
children for out-migration from Edja district, Dessena Kebele to different cities in Ethiopia.
Eighteen (18) individuals were selected to participate in the research as respondents from the
community using single criterion: sending at least one child to the cities. In-depth interview
and field observation were used to collect data from the respondents of the study. As the
finding of the study indicated the major causes of child out-migration to the cities are related
with the economy of the district. But there are other factors, like the positive perception of the
community respondents about life in the cities, large family size, poor health and educational
services that push or motivate children to migrate to the cities. The implication of this study
for social work practice is that social worker may intervene in raising the awareness of the
community about the negative effects of child out-migration, the importance of education for
children’s future career development and the benefit of having small family size. Besides, it
could be suggested that since child out-migration is one of the livelihood strategies of the
community it could be difficult to minimize child out-migration. Thus, teaching the children
as well as the community how to overcome the problems the children my encounter in the
cities, is important. Generally, economic poverty of the community is one of the major causes
for child out-migration to the cities from the study area
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Social Work