Social and psychological factors influencinng migration disposition in Kenya

Abstract

This study attempts to identify some of ·the causes of migration disposition based on a field investigation conducted on a sample of the young rural population in Kenya in 1979. The motivation for this study stemn1ed from the fact that migration is frequently seen as undesirable and the

Such migration frequently results in a loss of the most talented young people from the rural areas The migration of young adult an~ adult males leaves many rural households without male heads. Within urban areas, migration contributes substantially to the high rates of - urban population growth and the associated problems, such as under- and unemployment, housing shortages and the shortage of basic infrastructure. Moreover, the lack of agreement about the causes of' migration has greatly reduced the~ ability of policy makers to control this process. Continuing migration from the rural areas indicates that the process is performing a role in these rural communities. To understand migration in this established form calls for an examination of the factors - operating in the premigration stage that dispose some people to migrate and others riot to migrate. . ' This study assumes that people's behaviour is motivated by their attitudes and attitudes are to a large extent socially determined. Migration depositions is thus behaviour determined by conditions in the rural communities. New attitudes appear to have emerged in rural communities and migration appears to be the means through which they can be realized and it is sanctioned, and norms to induce conformity to the migration behavior have emerged. In other words, migration appears to have become~ a socially accepted behaviour. The rural society is socializing the young to expect to migrate in future. Thus migration dispositions are examined within the~ socio-cultural milieu where attitudes to migrate are formed. The log-linear modeling used to analyze the data confirms that factors in the objective~ environment, normative factors, and psychological factors determine

migration dispositions. These findings ~suggest that young people will continue to be disposed to migrate from the rural areas as they continue to westernize.