Maternal mobility across the rural-urban divide: empirical data from coastal Kenya

Abstract

This paper describes the mobility patterns, rural-urban linkages and household structures for a low-income neighbourhood on the outskirts of Mombasa, Kenya's main port, and a rural settlement 60 kilometres away. Drawing on interviews with a sample of mothers resident in each location, it documents their perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of rural and urban life, and shows the continuous interchange between the two areas. It also highlights how most rural to urban migrants are familiar with urban environments before moving and how, having moved, many maintain strong rural ties. The ways in which households are split across rural and urban areas is influenced by intra-household relations and by household efforts to balance the income-earning opportunities in town, the relatively low cost of living in rural areas and future family security. This produces dramatic differences between and among rural and urban mothers and suggests a need for policy makers and planners to recognize diversity and to build upon complex livelihood strategies that span the rural-urban divide.

Between town and country: shifting identity and migrant youth in Uganda

“…Literature on rural–urban migration has increasingly focused on the blurring of these two arenas, both geographically with increasing awareness of ‘peri-urban’ areas, and temporally – highlighting the fluidity of migration and how migrants maintain relations with the home village whilst building new lives in the urban areas (Cheney 2007; Molyneux et al 2002). Our research suggests that the rural/urban division of researchers and policy makers is not reflected in the experience of people who migrate from rural areas.…”

“…In the context of internal migration, migrants’ relatively close proximity to their rural roots may support a sense of identity which incorporates a new aspect that enables them to accept and function in their new setting, but also enables them to return home and honour the commitments and family ties that they have there (Englund 2002; Molyneux et al . 2002). It is not that internal migrants are switching between two distinct identities, but that they find a sense of identity that enables them to incorporate their idea of themselves as both urban and rural residents, as well as other identities they may hold.…”