Settler migration during the 1984/85 resettlement programme in Ethiopia

Abstract

The recent history of resettlement in Ethiopia is briefly reviewed and the causes, flow patterns and some demograpic impacts of the 1984/85 government-sponsored resettlement migration are examined with the objective of identifying motivations and constraints in the migration process, analysing changes in population distribution and examining policy implications. Famine was the major push factor in migration, but traditional reactions of peasants to drought and overpopulation caused more drought victims to leave their homes spontaneously for relief and transit centres than as recruits of the government-sponsored resettlement programme. However, motivation to migrate and distances travelled to centres showed strong regional variation, indicating the severity of the famine and traditional adaptive strategies. Changes in rural population density were significant in several awrajas (districts) but were reduced by return migration. Problems associated with this emergency resettlement programme are reflected in difficulties during programme implementation, generally low agricultural production of settlers and high rates of return migration. Further studies are nceded on the ecological impact of settler migration in both sending and receiving areas, peasant coping behaviour, as well as the evolution of new settler migration patterns in the new settlement areas in W Ethiopia.

Climate variability, political crises, and historical population displacements in Ethiopia

“…4. Though these data are certainly incomplete, the geographic patterns agree with those depicted in Kloos and Adugna (1989b), whose data came from a different Ethiopian government agency (the former Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, now the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission). Most migrants were sent to west-central areas, including several low-density regions reporting above-average population change between 1984 and 1994 (Fig.…”

Impacts of Resettlement Programs on Deforestation of Moist Evergreen Afromontane Forests in Southwest Ethiopia

“…In the 1970s and early 1980s, drought and famine events reached crisis levels in north and north-central Ethiopia. Resettlement programs were seen as an immediate solution to the problem (Rahmato 1988;Kloos and Adugna 1989;Kloos 1990;McCann 1995;Belay 2004;Limenih et al 2012), and 343,000 households (about 1.7 million people) were resettled in southwestern and western Ethiopia in 1984Ethiopia in -1985 (Getachew 1989;Ezra 1997Ezra , 2001Rahmato 2003;Yntiso 2004Yntiso , 2009Mberu 2006;Pankhurst 2009). Southwestern Ethiopia accommodated about 600,000 (35%) of the migrants who reached their final destinations (Tadesse et al 2014).…”

Resettlement and woodland management problems and options: a case study from North‐western Ethiopia

“…Sponsored resettlement in Ethiopia began in the 1950s and persists to the present day (Wood, 1985;Kloos, 1989;Rahmato, 2003;Hammond, 2008). The aims of these resettlement programmes was to alleviate frequent food insecurity for households in the degraded highlands and by the same move to ease human pressure on the environment through translocation to the apparently vacant and fertile lands in others parts of the Country (Kloos, 1989;Kassa, 2004;Hammond, 2008). The number of officially resettled people have shown tremendous increment over time from about 20 000 households (or about 120 000 individuals) prior to 1974, to 600 000 individuals during the socialist government (1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990) (Kloos, 1989;Erlichman, 2003) and 2Á2 million people by the time of the current government (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008) (NCFSE, 2003;Hammond, 2008).…”

“…Sponsored resettlement in Ethiopia began in the 1950s and persists to the present day (Wood, ; Kloos, ; Rahmato, ; Hammond, ). The aims of these resettlement programmes was to alleviate frequent food insecurity for households in the degraded highlands and by the same move to ease human pressure on the environment through translocation to the apparently vacant and fertile lands in others parts of the Country (Kloos, ; Kassa, ; Hammond, ).…”