Gendered patterns of migration into the urban slums of Nairobi: using sequence analysis to create a typology of migrants

Ligaya Batten, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)

Understanding the changing sex composition of migration dynamics has important economic and demographic implications for developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where urbanisation is occurring ever more rapidly. However, because of a lack of appropriate migration data for sub-Saharan Africa, there have been relatively few empirical studies which have been able to describe this phenomenon. This study uses newly collected ten-year migration history data on 12634 adults (older than 12 years old) from two slum populations in Nairobi, Kenya, between September 2006 and April 2007, and aims to: (i) use sequence analysis techniques to define migrant groups with similar migration histories based on factors such as place of origin, reason for moving, and duration of stay; and (ii) establish the extent to which these typologies differ according to gender.