THE EFFECT OF RURAL TO URBAN MIGRATION IN INFORMAL ECONOMY: THE CASE OF WOLISO TOWN

Abstract

The urban informal economy sector plays a vital role in generating employment, income generation, and skill development as well as improvement of human life standadrd. This study aimed at assessing the effect of rural-urban migration on the informal economy. For the purpose of this study, an explanatory survey design is employed. In this study, 375 respondents were taken as sample for the study to represent population of the study. Among the total population, 242 (65.5%) were male respondents and 125 (34.5%) of them were female respondents. To select samples, the study used a simple random sampling technique. The study indicated that there is a higher extent of rural-urban migration in the study town. Moreover, the study found that there is low effort of responsible bodies in order to solve rural-urban migration and its effect on informal economy. The study reveals that the major factor that effect rural-urban migration and the informal economy in the study area includes pushing factor such as economic hardship, political instability, famine, environmental degradation, religious & ethnic conflict and pulling factorslike employment opportunity, hope for better life, political freedom etc. According to the findings of the study, the social effect of rural to urban migration the study area includes the increment of population size in the urban area. This results in unbalanced proportion of the local population. The study also indicates that the economic effect of rural-urban migration is the imbalance between production and basic demand of the population in the area. The study shown that the rural-urban migration increases the urban population and hence unplanned urban expansion with insufficient supply of social services like education, health care proper sewerage system, road networks and transportation system. The study suggests that there should be intensive researches to reduce the multi-dimensional effect of rural-urban migration on the informal economy sector.