The United Nations has projected that Africa’s urban population will expand from fourth
largest to becoming the second largest of the world’s regions by the year 2050. Patterns
of migration and urbanisation have therefore been highlighted as significant focus areas
for research and policy. Movement has the potential to result in improved living conditions
and well-being, but may also reinforce inequalities and conditions of vulnerability. These
consequences may pose particular risks in the case of children, and understanding the
patterns, drivers and outcomes associated with child mobility is therefore critical.
South Africa provides an important setting in which to explore child movements. The shift
within the country from politically controlled migration to movement based on choice has
resulted in high levels of mobility both to and within urban areas. Children have been
shown to participate in such movements either independently or in conjunction with
connected adults. However, there is currently little knowledge of the patterns and
consequences of child residential mobility in South Africa, particularly within the urban
environment. This PhD thesis attempts to address this research gap.
Data from Birth to Twenty, a cohort of South African urban children living in Greater
Johannesburg, was used to investigate three central research questions concerning
residential mobility of cohort children over a 14 year period. Specifically, the thesis aimed
to determine the frequencies and patterns of residential mobility observed over the first 14 years of the children’s lives, to examine the associations with mobility of children over a set of domains relating to the child, the child’s primary caregiver, and the child’s
household and to assess the relationships between residential and school mobility and a set of educational outcomes. Routine data collected over the course of the Birth to Twenty study was supplemented
with data from a Residential Move Questionnaire, administered to children’s primary
caregivers in order to validate and provide additional information concerning the children’s
residential movements over the time frame. The research objectives were achieved
through the use of cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis techniques applied to these
data. In particular, multilevel event-history analysis was used to model the children’s
residential movements over time.
Of the 3273 children enrolled into the cohort in 1990, two thirds of the children (64%) had
moved home at least once by the time they reached 15 years of age. Nonetheless, a third
of the children had never moved, indicating stability or a lack of opportunity for movement
amongst this urban child population. Mobility was found to be more likely amongst
children whose primary caregivers had no formal education and who lived in households
with fewer assets and less access to services, suggesting that residential movement
within this group of children was more common in the context of disadvantage. Extending
these findings to an exploration of children’s educational outcomes revealed some
unexpected results. The analyses provided evidence of a positive association between
changes in residence and numeracy and literacy scores, and school mobility was found to
be associated with grade repetition, however, a negligible relationship was found between
residential mobility and school progression.
In conclusion, mobility is associated with opportunities for some children in the cohort and
challenges or hardships for others. However, even in the instance of movement
connected to disadvantage, changes of residence did not prejudice children in terms of
the educational outcomes investigated. This is suggestive of children’s possible resilience
and adaptability in the face of change and highlights the potential for mobility to influence
children’s lives positively. The findings concerning the relationship between mobility and
child well-being run counter to trends observed in high-income countries and on that basis, the need for further research into dynamics associated with child mobility in other
low- and middle-income country settings is highlighted. There is justification for monitoring child mobility in South Africa; mobility trends provide a valuable indicator of children’s
living situations as well as the spatial and social changes occurring in the country more
broadly. Keywords: residential mobility; internal migration; urban children; South Africa; eventhistory
models; school progression; numeracy and literacy; school mobility
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/10842 |
| Date | 23 November 2011 |
| Creators | Ginsburg, Carren |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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