South Africa is a major destination for migrants from across the African Continent. Ethiopian migrants have become an important component of the migrant population. Ethiopian business operators are becoming a regular feature of the economies of underprivileged communities in urban and rural South. Like the migration of other groups of African migrants to South Africa, existing research links the bulk of Ethiopian migration to South Africa to access to resources or the lack thereof. Children form part of the groups that move to South Africa from Ethiopia either as independent migrants or with families. This aspect of Ethiopian migration will be examined in collaboration with WP2 Inequalities Related to Childhood. Deprivation and unequal access to income generates inequalities across age groups and is a major factor in the decision to migrate and in the relationship among migrants and between migrants and locals. Alongside WP3 Poverty and Income Inequalities, we seek to find out how inequalities of income structure the lives of Ethiopian migrants in South Africa. An aspect of inequality is the transfer of resources that migrants facilitate. Does this mediation of resources by migrants reduce inequality or does it exacerbate it? This is and the question of capital formation and knowhow. WP6 Resource Flows: Finance, trade and Knowledge is posing questions about how the role of Ethiopians in South Africa in the movement of resources: material and immaterial.

Work Packages

WP2: Inequalities related to childhood

WP3: Poverty and income inequalities

WP6: Resource flows: finance, trade and knowledge

Research Questions

  1. How do inequalities develop through childhood in relation to migration? (WP2)
  2. How does age influence migration decision-making and outcomes? (WP2)
  3. What are local perceptions of childhood? How is child defined at the individual, household and communal level? How does this intersect within the above three questions? (WP2)
  4. What are the implications of the settlement of migrants on inequality in destination area (South Africa)? (WP3)
  5. To what extent is movement in the corridor shaped by and shaping inequality between origin and destination countries (both sending and receiving country)? (WP3)
  6. To what extent is movement in the corridor shaped by and shaping inequality between origin and destination countries (both sending and receiving country)? (WP3)
  7. What are the characteristics of the resource flows between country of origin (CoO) and country of destination (CoD) – composition, size, transmission mechanisms and interactions amongst flows? (WP6)
  8. What are the characteristics of businesses owned/managed/financed by migrants in CoD? (WP6)
  9. What are the characteristics of businesses linked by ownership, management or investment financing to diasporas or returnee migrants in CoO? (WP6)
    [The term ‘businesses’ here includes household enterprises and collective organisations, as discussed above.]
  10. What has been the impact of CoD migrants’ professional and technical (non- business) skills brought from CoO to CoD or taken back from CoD to CoO? (WP6)