Monday, January 30, 2023 — 12:00-01:00pm
Room 115, MSE
The role of health(care) as a driver for migration aspirations and realizations in Africa: An empirical analysis
Els Bekaert
(Post-doc, Ghent University & UNU-CRIS)
This study empirically examines how African migration aspirations can be explained on the basis of poor health and dissatisfaction with local healthcare. Deploying unique individual-level data, I track the drivers to internal and international migration aspirations, and their materialisation across 47 African countries between 2008-2015 (210,551 respondents). Dissatisfaction with local healthcare forms a strong and highly robust determinant of migration aspirations in Africa; however, there is no systematic additional impact on subsequent migration behaviour. Migration aspirations and their materialisation vary with individuals’ health status. Health problems drive people’s aspirations to move in the short run, but reduce aspirations to migrate permanently abroad. Yet, among those aspiring to go abroad, respondents with poor health are more likely to start preparing for their move (i.e. purchased a ticket, applied for a visa). No consistent relationship between poor health and migration aspirations, however, is uncovered across Africa, and varies with individual (gender, education, living area) and country characteristics.
IELM seminars - CES & Paris 1 University 