38 International Journal of Population Studies | 2019, Volume 5, Issue 1
International Journal of Population Studies
Abstract: Youth internal migration is seen as a solution to youth unemployment, and this has
resulted in over urbanization and its associated negative effects such as congestion, pollution,
unemployment, underemployment, and increased crime rates. The study aimed at examining the
employment status of youth migrants, assessing the relationship between demographic factors
and youth internal migration, investigating the association between socio-economic factors
and youth internal migration, and evaluating the association between reasons for migration and
migrant employment status. The study used secondary data collected in the youth employment
and migration in Eastern and Southern Africa project. In Uganda, the project was carried out in
nine districts. The study focused on both men and women aged 18-35 years and a total number
of 1524 respondents were interviewed. Results of the study revealed that age, residence,
and region had a signifcant association with migration status (p≤0.05). Age, sex, number of
children, region, and reasons for migration had a signifcant association with self-employment
status of the migrant (p<0.05). Marital status, sex, and reasons for migration had an association
with the possibility of a migrant youth being employed (p≤0.05). The study recommends that
local governments should provide the required infrastructures, social services, and amenities
to encourage youths to carry out economic activities so as to develop their places of origin.
Keywords: Employment status; Migration associates; Social networks; Uganda;
Youth internal migration
1. Introduction
Youth is all young person’s female and male aged between 18 and 35 years (The
Government of Uganda, 1995). The study used Uganda’s defnition of youth. Youth is
a stage of human development during which young people make the transition from
childhood to adulthood and from dependence to independence and interdependence. This
transition (social, economic, and biological) is fundamental to safeguarding, shaping,
further developing, and deploying their human and social capital. It is during this period
that youth make important decisions about their lives particularly their ethical, social,
economic, cultural, political, and civic positioning and role – setting the stage for adulthood
(United Nations, 2014).
On the other hand, migration is the movement of a person or group of persons from one
geographical unit to another across an administrative or political border wishing to settle
defnitely or temporarily in a place other than their place of origin (United Nations, 2003).
Migration comprises internal and international migration. Internal migration is movement
within the same country, from one administrative unit, such as a region, province or
municipality to another. Internal migration is usually in the form of Rural Urban Migration
(RUM) or Urban to Urban migration. In contrast, international migration involves the
crossing of one or several international borders resulting in a change in the legal status
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Internal youth migraton in
Uganda: Analyzing associates and
employment outcomes
Sandra Mirembe
1,2
*, Abel Nzabona
2
, John A. Mushomi
2
1
Center for Population and Applied Statistics, Makerere University, Uganda,
2
Department of Population Studies, Makerere University, Uganda
ARTICLE INFO
Received: January 20, 2019
Accepted: August 23, 2019
Published: September 6, 2019
*CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Sandra Mirembe,
Master of Arts in Demography,
Researcher, Centre for
population and applied Statistics
(CPAS), Makerere University,
Uganda.
mirembesannie@gmail.com
CITATION
Mirembe S, Nzabona A,
Mushomi JA (2019) Internal
youth migration in Uganda:
Analyzing associates and
employment outcomes.
International Journal of
Population Studies, 5(1):38-49.
doi: 10.18063/ijps.v5i1.969
Copyright: © 2019 Mirembe S,
Nzabona A, Mushomi JA. This
is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0
International License (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-nc/4.0/), permitting all
noncommercial use, distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited.