Migration is a key component of population dynamics in developed as well as developing countries. The drivers of transnational human mobility range from factors that initiate migration to conditions that perpetuate the movement (Massey et al, 1993). Unemployment, high population growth rate, limited natural resource ownership, natural disasters and demand forlabour are among the key drivers of internal migrants (IOM, 2013). In Uganda, such migrants represent approximately 6 per cent of the population. Of these migrants, 44 per cent are between the ages of 15-29 and 37 per cent are under the age of 15. More than half are located in the Central Region of the country.
The level of urbanization in Uganda has been rising. For example, the urban population increased from 2.9 million (12.3%) in 2002 to 6.4 million in 2014, which was 18 percent of the country’s population (UBOS, 2002 &2014).Twenty of the 197 urban centres in 2014, had a population of 50,000 and above. Kampala City continues to be a primate city with a population of more than 1.5 million inhabitants (23% of urban population (UBOS, 2014). The city is destination to rural migrants from various parts of the country whogradually adapt to the urban social, economic and cultural environment (Nzabona&Tumwine, 2011). The study seeks to enhance further understanding of the link between internal migration and development. In particular it seeks to understand linkages between migration and socioeconomic livelihoods .
The overall objective is to enhance understanding of the link between internal migration and development in Uganda and to:
• Examine the contribution of internal migration to rural development,
• Analyse the connectivity between internal migration and urban livelihoods,
• Assess the influence of migrants’ demographic characteristics on sending and recipient households,
The study shall largely use the Uganda National Panel survey dataset where information was collected on migration status of individuals and other indicators that this study operationally defines as development. To date, Uganda Bureau of Statistics has conducted 4 rounds of surveys following the same households since 2005/6. While the study initially covered 3,123 households in 2005/6, this fell to 2,356 in 2011/12largely due to sample attrition.The dataset captured information on; place of residence as at survey time (Section 1A of questionnaire) and place of birth(Section 3:13a) as well as duration of stay (Section 3:15) at place of enumeration and hence the ability to capture migration status for this study.Here, a migrant shall be considered a person whose district/region of birth is different from district/region of enumeration and who has spent more than one year at place of enumeration. For this study, a household as represented by the household head shall be the unit of analysis. Preliminary analysis shall largely comprise cross tabulations (with measures of association) between migration status of the household head and all other variables operationalised to denote development at household level. A series of models at multivariate level shall be fitted to estimate the effect of migration on development by rural-urban residence or region.
I. Research Collaborations 1.1 Scientific collaborations in geography and urban health 1.2
