SOCIO-ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF RURAL-URBAN MIGRANT YOUTHS IN ADDIS KETEMA SUB-CITY

Abstract

In some developing countries like Ethiopia the phenomenon of rural-urban migration which is mainly activated by rural 'push' factors and urban 'pull' factors is the main cause of unemployment and demographic pressure in urban areas. This situation in turn affects the healthy development of both urban and rural areas. In spite of this fact, much study is not conducted to analyze its effect on urban dwellers and in rural livelihood. To this end, this study is mainly concerned with an assessment of the effect of rural-urban migration on the socio-economic condition of urban dwellers, consequence of rural-urban migrant youth on the demography of urban areas, and consequences of rural-urban migration on the urban labor and unemployment situation of the city. In order to find out the problems, questionnaire was distributed and administered to 150 urban-rural migrant youths and local residents sampled through random sampling, 36 respondents through interview and FGD was also conducted with 24 local government officials to identify these effects. The study was made with response rate of 96.2% Primary data had been collected through questionnaire, interview and FGD while the secondary one was via physical observation and review of different documents. Thus, the data obtained from the participants was analyzed through descriptive statistics. Having analyzed the collected data, the researcher had arrived at the conclusion that rural-urban migration has severe impact on the socio-economic life of the urban dwellers. Rural-urban migrant youths came to urban areas in search of employment and to utilize urban services and facilities. Since, the continued out flow of rural migrants is in search for the urban basic facilities, migrant youths have created pressure on the socio-economic and environmental condition of the host area. Now Addis Ababa experiences problems such as a shortage of housing, unemployment, increasing cost of living, lack of access to social services, increased crime rate, expansion of urban informal sectors and other related problems mainly because of high rate of rural-urban migration.