Age schedules of intra-provincial migration in Kenya

Abstract

Background: Migration today is a complex process determined by inter-related historical, geographical, economic, sociological and political factors. There are linkages between life-course transitions and patterns of movement necessitating estimation of migration propensities by age, sex and other characteristics. However, analysis of age specific migration propensities has been limited in developing countries.Data source and methods: Data was derived from the 2009 Kenya population and housing Census via the IPUMS data Series. The standard 7-parameter age migration schedule due to Rogers and Castro (1981) was fitted using Microsoft excel workbook using solver.Results: Large volumes of movements occur between ages 17 and 24.The peak ages at migration are similar to those observed in Asian migration patterns. The age pattern for all the regions had two peaks contrary to the standard with four.Conclusion: The results suggest that the main contributory factors behind migration schedules are schooling, labour force and associational moves.