Childhood mortality Afghanistan - National Risk and Vulnerability Survey 2011-2012, Living Conditions Survey NRVA 2011 12 report
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Migration concepts
A seasonal migrant is a person who spends at least one month, but less than a year away from the household for seasonal work.
In this report, migration analysis distinguishes two different time dimensions. Life-time migration occurs when a person currently
lives in an area different from where heshe was born. Recent
migration is measured as migration since a speciic point in recent
time. Here this point is deined as October 2004, since many people will remember where they lived during the presidential elections at
that time. The annual immigration and in-migration ratio are calculated as,
respectively the immigrant and in-migrant population as percentage of the resident population. The emigration and out-migration rate
are calculated as the number of, respectively, emigrants and out- migrants as percentage of the resident population in the area of
departure. Migration
is deined by the act of crossing a border and going to live elsewhere for at least a year. Crossing the border of two countries
represents international migration. People who enter a country are immigrants and those who leave a country are emigrants. Crossing
administrative boundaries within a country represents internal migration. Persons moving into an area from within the country are
labeled here as in-migrants, those who move to another area within the country are labeled as out-migrants.
Internal migration can be measured at different levels. In this report two levels are distinguished: internal migration between districts
and that between provinces. Inter-provincial migration always involves migration between districts, but the opposite does not
necessarily hold true.
Emigration and out-migration are under-estimated to the extent that complete households have moved away.
The mobility of the Afghan population is shown by the inding that some 5.1 million people 18.8 percent were born outside the district where they now reside, either in another district in Afghanistan or abroad. Half of these movers
2.6 million were also born outside the province of current residence, and some 827 thousand 3.1 percent were born abroad Table 3.6, panel a.
Table 3.6: Percentage of population living outside the district of current residence a at birth and b in October 2004, by previous place of residence, sex, and by current residence
Place of current
residence a. Place of birth:
in other b. Place of residence in
October 2004: in other country
province districta
country province
district
a
Urban 4.3
17.5 35.9
6.9 7.6
15.7 Rural
2.6 2.0
8.0 2.5
0.8 2.6
National
b
3.1 6.4
15.7 3.6
2.7 6.2
a
Figures for previous residence in other district include those with previous residence in other province, i.e. these are counted twice.
b
National includes the Kuchi population.
As expected, the share of persons born elsewhere is higher in urban than in rural areas: more than one-third 35.9 percent of the urban population has moved to another place of residence within Afghanistan since birth, whereas only
8.0 percent of the rural population did so. Also in absolute terms do urban areas accommodate more life-time in-migrants from within Afghanistan: 2.2 million against 1.9 million for rural areas. Urban areas again house in relative terms more
persons born abroad than rural areas 4.3 against 2.6 percent, but in absolute numbers more life-time immigrants have moved to rural areas.
Information about the place of residence in October 2004 shows a similar pattern: the share of the population that lived elsewhere seven years before the survey is much higher in urban areas than in rural areas, and of all internal migrants
that took up residence in rural areas 2.6 percent of the total rural population less than a third 0.8 percentage points came from outside the province of current residence. In urban areas almost one in six persons 15.7 percent lived
elsewhere in Afghanistan in 2004, half of whom in another province. Urban areas also accommodate a relatively larger share of people who immigrated from abroad since 2004 6.9 percent, compared to 2.5 percent in rural areas, although
in absolute numbers more recent immigrants are living in rural areas.
The igures for life-time and recent in-migrants indicate that settling in a new, rural area is relatively uncommon, but less so for immigrants. To the extent that it concerns internal migration, it is largely short-distance moves from neighbouring
districts within the province. Possible explanations for this are the limited economic opportunities in the rural sector and the closed community structure in Afghan society, which impede integration of outsiders.
With regard to out-migrants, NRVA 2011-12 shows that in the year before the survey 303 thousand people of 14 years and over had left the household to live somewhere outside the district of residence. More than two-ifth of these remained
within the province and one-ifth 65 thousand moved to another province within Afghanistan. No less than one in three persons leaving the household 107 thousand went to live abroad.
POPULATION STRUCTURE AND CHANGE
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