The Livelihood and Survival Strategies of Migrant Children in Bahir Dar Town
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Date
2008-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Many of the street children in the study area, Bahir Dar, are rural-urban migrants. The
present study investigates the livelihood and survival strategies of migrant street
children. It further looks at the causes of migration of children and the social networks
they maintain among themselves and to their rural villages. Structuration Theory and
Livelihood Approach are adopted to look at the issues to get insights about how street
children are making a living in the study area. Structuration Theory has been appliedto
look at the research problem from different perspectives. It is employed to realize the
factors that shape the life of street children in the urban social system. Children make
part of the structure of the urban life and as actors are striving to adjust themselves to
livelihood outcomes. Livelihood approach has been adapted to look at the diverse street
based economic activities of children and how they adapt survival mechanisms to meet
their basic needs. In this study qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection .are used. The
qualitative method is used to understand the view of migrant street children and their
lived experience while the quantitative method is us?d to supplement the data collected
through qualitative one. Interviews, focus group discussion, and observation are used as
instruments of data collection. Migrant street children' as the subjects of this study were
selected Ji'om Bahir Dar TQwn, using purposive snowball sampling to get insights about
their lives. The data collected are triangulated and cross-checked to check reliability and
validity of information. The study shows that children driftedfrom different pacts of the country into the study
area and the children left their rural villages Qn their O1'Vn and without a,ny parental say
on their decision to migrate. They also come from families with large size in their rU(al
localities, Migration does not lead them to lose contpct with their rural fQlk except in few
cases. Children migrate into the study area as a result of interwoven and var.ious factors
including poverty, disagreement with their families, death of parents (either ~oth or one
of their parents), in search of education and others, It has been found that increased
migration of rural children was aggravated due to rural po~erty, This study also shows
that street children are engaged in div~rse liyelihood activities that req1!ire different
types of assets of which labor is the most decisive one that enables them to earn income
either directly in wage employment .or indirectly through the production of goods and
services sold in the informal market, 111 the.ir day 1.0 dqy survival scel?ario, street children
interact among themselves through various informal social networks characterized by
hierarchies. Th~ir sodal networks are also important to stre,ngthen the capability of
groups' members to reduce vulnerability and be more beneficial to livelihood outcomes. Key- Words: Livelihood, Survival Strategy, Strcturatiol1 Theory
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Keywords
Livelihood, Survival Strategy, Strcturation Theory