Recent Internal Migration and Labour Market Outcomes: Exploring the 2008 & 2010 National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) panel data in S.A
Speaker: Professor C.N. Mbatha, Graduate School of Business Leadership, Unisa
Venues in Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town (Videoconferencing facilities: see below)
Date: 11 June 2014
Time: 12H15 for 12h30 – 13H30
This seminar is based on a research paper that proposes that South African recent migrants from rural to urban areas experience relatively lower rates of participation in formal labour markets compared to local residents in urban communities, and that these migrants would be over represented in the informal labour market and in the unemployment sector. This means that rural to urban migrants are more likely than other migrant groups to be found in the sectors mentioned.
Using perspectives from Development Economics we explore the South African National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) panel datasets of 2008 and 2010, which allow a look only at what has happened between 2008 and 2010. We find that while migrants in general experience positive outcomes in informal labour markets, they also experience positive outcomes in formal markets and contrary to expectations. We also find that there are strong links between other indicators of performance in the labout market. Earned incomes are highly associated with migration decisions and educational endowments (e.g. a Matric) for respondents between the ages of 30 and 60 years old.
The youth (15 to 30 years old) and senior respondents (above 60 years old) are the most disadvantaged in the labour market. The disadvantage is reflected further in lower earned incomes. This is the case even though the youth are most likely to migrate. We conclude that migration is motivated by both push (to seek employment) and pull (accumulated human capital endowments) factors. For public policy, the emerging patterns – indicative and established – are important for strategies aimed at creating employment and developing skills for migrants and especially for young people who migrate.
Kindly RSVP by 9 June 2014
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Pretoria : HSRC Video Conference, 1st floor HSRC Library Human Sciences Research Council, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria. Arlene Grossberg, Tel: (012) 302 2811, e-mail: acgrossberg@hsrc.ac.za, or Happy Solomon, Tel 012 302 2368, e-mail: HSolomon@hsrc.ac.za