Female Migration in Lesotho : Determinants and Opportunities
Migration, internal and external, continues to be a dominant livelihood strategy for households in Lesotho, with almost half (43 percent) of households reporting at least one member living away. The past decade has seen a sharp increase in female m...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/221011516284133476/Female-migration-in-Lesotho-determinants-and-opportunities http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29217 |
| Summary: | Migration, internal and external,
continues to be a dominant livelihood strategy for
households in Lesotho, with almost half (43 percent) of
households reporting at least one member living away. The
past decade has seen a sharp increase in female migration,
due to a halt in new hires of Basotho men in South African
mines and a concomitant expansion of jobs primarily for
women in the export garment sector in Maseru and Maputsoe.
This study analyzes female migration using three waves of
the Demographic and Health Survey (2004, 2009, and 2014) as
well as primary data collected by the research team in
March-April 2015. The findings indicate that female
migration in Lesotho is primarily driven by economic
"push" (rather than "pull") factors,
often due to shocks to the household, such as job loss,
death, or bad crops. Migrants are often seen as
"strugglers" and their households of origin are
just as poor as rural households with no migrants. Moreover,
the study finds conclusive evidence that women's
employment in sectors dominated by migrants is strongly
correlated with HIV/AIDS: 55 percent of women working in
garment factories and 38 percent of domestic workers are HIV
positive, as opposed to the national average of 30 percent.
These findings point to three policy recommendations to
support female migrants and their families: (i) lower the
barriers to secondary education in rural areas, (ii)
diversify and expand employment opportunities for men and
women, and (iii) provide HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment
services to garment factory workers as well as migrants
working in the informal sector. |
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