The Duration of Migration among Malawians: How Family and Friend Networks Play a Role

• In Event: 151 - Regular Session. Internal Migration

Abstract

Employment, age, marriage and dissolutions, and regional effects have been highly salient in explaining migration patterns in African contexts, as in other locations around the world. This paper, however, examines an alternative theoretical perspective on push-pull factors that migrants face in Africa. Thus, when considering that many African cultures are guided by strong kinship norms, it is surprising that the effect of family members on residence spells are relatively unknown on a continent with voluminous migrant flows and strong kinship norms. It would not be at all surprising that one’s networks would be influential in the decision to migrate, but migration research in SSA has not often been able to effectively test the impacts of these networks. Therefore, in this paper, I begin by asking whether the presence of family members in migrants’ destinations impacts the duration of their stay and chances of moving again. Then, I explore whether the presence of non-kin—in particular, friends—might also influence the duration of a migrant’s stay at a given location, since friends could offer additional sources of support. Using detailed retrospective residence history data on 862 Malawians from the Migration and Health in Malawi (MHM) Study, I am able to assess whether the presence of family and friends in a destination location affect the duration of one’s residence after accounting for competing theoretical factors.

Author

• Tyler Wiktor Myroniuk, Brown University