Forced to stay: migration and satisfaction among urban slum migrants in Nairobi

Netsayi Mudege, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)

Using qualitative data collected from a sample of rural-urban migrants over the age of 15 in two Nairobi slums interviewed in 2008, this paper seeks to discuss the level of satisfaction of migrants with their decision to migrate. This will be done by exploring reasons why people stay in the slum area, whether they would actively advice would be migrants to come and leave in the slum area and whether they are considering relocating elsewhere and what the barriers are. By so doing the paper will highlight why in spite of the high levels of poverty and misery in slum areas, people continue to stay in slum. Research has indicated the growing concentration of poverty in third world cities and demographic indicators have sometimes shown better life outcomes for rural dwellers than for urban dwellers who are increasingly residing in slum areas with worse health and infant mortality.