Household Differentials and the Individual Decision to Migrate to South Africa. The Case of Gweru City in Zimbabwe

Zimbabweans of all walks of life have crossed over to South Africa since the late 1990s for long and short periods of time, some of them even remain there permanently. The increased amount of the migration is largely blamed on Zimbabwe’s socio-economic and political instability by most scholars. However, the actual decision to migrate is reached as a result of pressure and motivation from within a household. The study investigates the influence of the household on an individual’s decision to migrate to South Africa. This study was carried out using a household survey of 150 households from different wealth quantiles from the central city of Gweru in Zimbabwe. Basic descriptives were employed to generate the findings. Only 2% of the sample indicated that they did not have individuals who had migrated to South Africa or any other country. About 43.7% of all migrants were females and 45.7% of the female migrants had children younger than five years old staying with relatives in Zimbabwe. Most households tend to have a strong influence on the migration decision, and as a result the majority of the migrants send remittances back home.