Paper short abstract:

Data on migration remains particularly patchy which in turns limits ability of assessing trends of migration. By tracking population changes, the Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems are filling a gap in developing databases which can be used to study migration better in deprived rural areas.

Paper long abstract:

Although rural out-migration is a common phenomenon in Ethiopia and has become a concern of researchers and policymakers, there is much uncertainty regarding the determinants shaping the patterns, levels, and choices of rural migration due to the lack of quantitative knowledge on the topic. To bridge the gap, we examine a source of data, still largely neglected in the analysis of migration: the HDSS (Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems) data.

Established in 2007 in Kersa, district of eastern Hararege, Oromia region, Eastern Ethiopia, the Kersa Demographic Surveillance and Health Research Center (KDS-HRC) is one of the 47 HDSS sites of the INDEPTH network (http://www.indepth-network.org/). It has been carrying out a longitudinal population-based tracking that could be utilised to analyse and unravel the migration patterns and practices of the last 10 years in an active in- an out-migration area. . By tracking population changes through fertility rates, death rates, migration and morbidity, this HDSS provide a critical resource for migration studies and can be investigated to understand the circumstances of migration better over place and time in deprived rural and semi-urban areas. Our research seeks particularly to understand what are the motivations and demographic events pushing people to move out with a particular focus on the behavior of farmers. This given HDSS population of more than 148000 individuals is then considered as a unique draw from a hypothetical universe of all possible similarly deprived situations.