IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/izajdm/v10y2019i2p22-48n1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fragmenting the Family? The Complexity of Household Migration Strategies in Post-apartheid South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Hall Katharine

    (Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa)

  • Posel Dorrit

    (School of Economic and Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa)

Abstract

The disruption of family life is one of the important legacies of South Africa’s colonial and apartheid history. Families were undermined by deliberate strategies implemented through the pass laws, forced removals, urban housing policy, and the creation of homelands. Despite the removal of legal restrictions on permanent urban settlement and family co-residence for Africans, patterns of internal and oscillating labor migration have endured, dual or stretched households continue to link urban and rural nodes, children have remained less urbanized than adults, and many grow up without coresident parents. Although children are clearly affected by adult labor migration, they have tended to be ignored in the migration discourse. In this study, we add to the literature by showing how a child lens advances our understanding of the complexities of household arrangements and migration processes for families. In a mixed-methods study, we use nationally representative panel data to describe persistence, and also change, in migration patterns in South Africa when viewed from the perspective of children. We then draw on a detailed case study to explore what factors constrain or permit families to migrate together, or children to join adults at migration destination areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Hall Katharine & Posel Dorrit, 2019. "Fragmenting the Family? The Complexity of Household Migration Strategies in Post-apartheid South Africa," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 10(2), pages 1-20, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:izajdm:v:10:y:2019:i:2:p:22-48:n:1
    DOI: 10.2478/izajodm-2019-0004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2478/izajodm-2019-0004
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2478/izajodm-2019-0004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cally Ardington & Anne Case & Victoria Hosegood, 2007. "Labor Supply Responses To Large Social Transfers: Longitudinal Evidence From South Africa," Working Papers 1021, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Health and Wellbeing..
    2. Dorrit Posel, 2004. "Have Migration Patterns in Post-Apartheid South Africa Changed?," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 15(3-4), pages 277-292, July.
    3. Victoria Hosegood & Anne Case & Cally Ardington, 2009. "Labor Supply Responses to Large Social Transfers: Longitudinal Evidence from South Africa," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 22-48, January.
    4. Dorrit Posel & Daniela Casale, 2003. "What Has Been Happening To Internal Labour Migration In South Africa, 1993–1999?," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 71(3), pages 455-479, September.
    5. Douglas S. Massey, 2015. "A Missing Element in Migration Theories," Migration Letters, Migration Letters, vol. 12(3), pages 279-299, September.
    6. Michelle Hatch & Dorrit Posel, 2018. "Who cares for children? A quantitative study of childcare in South Africa," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(2), pages 267-282, March.
    7. Murray Leibbrandt & Ingrid Woolard & Arden Finn & Jonathan Argent, 2010. "Trends in South African Income Distribution and Poverty since the Fall of Apartheid," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 101, OECD Publishing.
    8. Posel, Dorrit & Fairburn, James A. & Lund, Frances, 2006. "Labour migration and households: A reconsideration of the effects of the social pension on labour supply in South Africa," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 836-853, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Harling, Guy & Kobayashi, Lindsay C. & Farrell, Meagan T. & Wagner, Ryan G. & Tollman, Stephen & Berkman, Lisa, 2020. "Social contact, social support, and cognitive health in a population-based study of middle-aged and older men and women in rural South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    2. Cassandra Cotton & Clement Oduor, 2025. "The constellations of child fostering in Kenya: Considering location and distance," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 52(9), pages 273-302.
    3. Agüero,Jorge M. & Fasola,Eniola, 2022. "Distributional Policies and Social Cohesion in a High-Unemployment Setting," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10103, The World Bank.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hall Katharine & Posel Dorrit, 2019. "Fragmenting the Family? The Complexity of Household Migration Strategies in Post-apartheid South Africa," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 10(2), pages 22-48, August.
    2. Bhorat, Haroon & Köhler, Timothy, 2025. "The labour market effects of cash transfers to the unemployed: Evidence from South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    3. Dieter von Fintel & Eldridge Moses, 2017. "Migration and gender in South Africa: following bright lights and the fortunes of others?," Working Papers 09/2017, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics, revised 2018.
    4. Victoria Hosegood & Anne Case & Cally Ardington, 2009. "Labor Supply Responses to Large Social Transfers: Longitudinal Evidence from South Africa," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 22-48, January.
    5. Frederick C.v.N. Fourie, 2011. "The South African unemployment debate: three worlds, three discourses?," SALDRU Working Papers 63, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    6. Bassier, Ihsaan & Budlender, Joshua & Zizzamia, Rocco & Leibbrandt, Murray & Ranchhod, Vimal, 2021. "Locked down and locked out: Repurposing social assistance as emergency relief to informal workers," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    7. Marisa Coetzee, 2013. "Finding the Benefits: Estimating the Impact of The South African Child Support Grant," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 81(3), pages 427-450, September.
    8. Amar Hamoudi & Duncan Thomas, 2014. "Endogenous Co-residence and Program Incidence: South Africa's Old Age Pension," NBER Working Papers 19929, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Kaushal, Neeraj, 2014. "How Public Pension affects Elderly Labor Supply and Well-being: Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 214-225.
    10. Miguel Angel Borrella-Mas & Mariano Bosch & Marcello Sartarelli, 2019. "Heterogeneous Effect of a Non-contributory Pension. Evidence from Bolivia," Documentos de Trabajo del ICAE 2019-35, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Instituto Complutense de Análisis Económico.
    11. Inés Berniell & Dolores de la Mata & Matilde Pinto Machado, 2020. "The Impact of a Permanent Income Shock on the Situation of Women in the Household: The Case of a Pension Reform in Argentina," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(4), pages 1295-1343.
    12. Unnikrishnan, Vidhya & Imai, Katsushi S., 2020. "Does the old-age pension scheme improve household welfare? Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    13. Margherita Scarlato & Giorgio d'Agostino, 2019. "Cash Transfers, Labor Supply, and Gender Inequality: Evidence from South Africa," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 159-184, October.
    14. Maria Klara Kuss & Franziska Gassmann & Firminus Mugumya, 2022. "How Inclusive are the Local Economic Impacts of Social Protection in Uganda?," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(5), pages 2156-2178, October.
    15. Leibbrandt, Murray & Lilenstein, Kezia & Shenker, Callie & Woolard, Ingrid, 2013. "The influence of social transfers on labour supply: A South African and international review," SALDRU Working Papers 112, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    16. Neryvia Pillay & Chloe Allison & Kathryn Bankart, 2024. "The longrun effects of cash transfers on labour market outcomes," Working Papers 11071, South African Reserve Bank.
    17. Herrmann, Tabea & Leckcivilize, Attakrit & Zenker, Juliane, 2021. "The impact of cash transfers on child outcomes in rural Thailand: Evidence from a social pension reform," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    18. Kacker, Kanishka, 2019. "Social transfers and labor supply: Long run rvidence from South Africa," MPRA Paper 99044, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Xi Chen, 2016. "Old-Age Pension And Extended Families: How Is Adult Children'S Internal Migration Affected?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 34(4), pages 646-659, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    children; family migration; household strategies; mixed methods; South Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vrs:izajdm:v:10:y:2019:i:2:p:22-48:n:1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.