Three essays on the causes and consequences of youth migration in Tanzania

Migration of youth is a prominent phenomenon in Sub-Saharan Africa and in East Africa in particular. International and rural-to-urban migration gained a lot of attention in the older literature, yet internal rural-to-rural migration is the most frequent type. This work revolves around several issues of internal migration of youth in rural Tanzania. First, I determine which factors are associated with destination decisions made by young people. I look at four to six destination types on the rural-urban spectrum and consider various individual, household, and community factors that could affect migration decision. Second, I test how does migration to various destination areas on the rural-urban spectrum contribute to structural transformation through the shifts in main occupation. Although focusing on the shifts from agricultural work to self-employment and wage job, I also consider other employment categories like students, those working mainly in household maintenance, and unemployed people. Third, I estimate the impacts of youth outmigration on the livelihood of non-migrant household members. I consider changes to the labor supplied to the household farm, attraction of new household members, and adjustments to household participation in labor and land markets. I make contribution to the literature on internal migration of youth in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Tanzania in particular, in four ways. First, I distinguish several migration destinations across the rural-urban spectrum, from low-density rural areas to cities, broadening the conceptualization of migration decision instead of focusing on a specific flow of migrants. I test three categorizations of location types to account for different interpretations of results and to verify that the main results are not an artifact of the choice of the definition of "rural". Second, I stress the importance of rural-to-rural migration, which is prevalent in Tanzania, although understudied. I show that even migration to low-density rural areas is associated with a shift towards non-agricultural employment. Third, while looking at occupational shifts, I consider people who are usually excluded from the analysis: students and those employed in household maintenance. I also look at women who state marriage as their main reason for migration. It allows to broaden the view on migration flows and discover employment difficulties for certain groups of people, for example, female rural-to-rural migrants involved mainly in household maintenance and students transitioning into employment. Fourth, I explore the labor adjustment strategies of the households left behind after a young adult migrates, which has rarely been studied in the context of the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.