Poverty and migration in a transformed South Africa

[摘要] English: Despite poverty being the focus of many regional, national and international policyframeworks, 54% of the South African population continue to live in poverty. While escapingpoverty is admittedly difficult, breaking the intergenerational transmission of povertyconstitutes an even bigger challenge. To escape poverty, individuals and households turn tomethods such as migration as means of breaking the cycle of poverty.The aim of the study was to investigate the links between poverty dynamics and migration ina transformed South Africa. The study followed a two-pronged approach to investigate theselinks. The first approach investigated inter-household dynamics by focusing on poverty andon the intergenerational transfer of poverty from core to dynasty households. The firstapproach moreover investigated migration and remittances in core and dynasty householdsand their influence on poverty in dynasty households. The second approach explored intradynastyhousehold dynamics by comparing core and non-core members in dynastyhouseholds. The influence of core-member- and non-core member characteristics on dynastyhousehold welfare was also investigated in this approach. To achieve the specified aim, thisstudy utilised data generated by the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study (KIDS).According to the findings of the first analytical approach, dynasty households in the postapartheidera are better off than their core counterparts by not only having higher averageand median levels of household expenditure, but also lower levels of headcount poverty,depth of poverty and severity of poverty. The analysis further supports the existence of theintergenerational transfer (IGT) of poverty in respect of households living in KwaZulu-Natalby increasing the probability that a dynasty will be the poor by 40.3% �?if, that is, thehousehold in question comes from a chronically poor background. The findings also indicatethat the mobility of core households is relatively higher in the post-apartheid era than earlieron in the late-apartheid era. This study further confirms that migration is a household riskdiversificationstrategy because dynasty households from chronically poor backgrounds willbe more likely to migrate. Migratory dynasty households, on the other hand, demonstratesignificantly lower levels of poverty than non-migratory dynasty households. The co-insurance motive for remitting was also confirmed: dynasties from chronically poorbackgrounds were found to be more likely to receive remittances and the levels of povertywere moreover significantly lower for dynasty households receiving remittances.The findings of the second analytical approach reveal the importance of intra-householddynamics in respect of poverty in dynasty households. The results suggest that coreindividuals are crucial for the survival of dynasty households and stand to contribute more topoverty alleviation in dynasty households than do non-core household members in that coreindividuals enjoy higher levels of education and of social capital, they are in the labour force,are employed and are involved in remittance flows and they also receive social transfers fromgovernment. The findings of the second approach further suggest that the social capitalprovided by family members is important in respect of poverty alleviation.This study contributes to the literature on poverty in that it, on the one hand investigates thelinkages between poverty and poverty dynamics and, on the other, migration andremittances. This study also contributes to the literature on migration and remittance flowsand adds to our understanding of how migration relates to poverty dynamics in South Africanhouseholds.

[发布机构] University of the Free State