77
81 percent did so after migration. In contrast, of the sedentary labour migrants arriving from abroad only a minority of 35 percent settled in urban areas data not shown.
Table 5.6: Sedentary labour migrant populations, by place of current residence, and by place of previous residence, urban-rural in percentages
Migrant type, place of Place of current residence
previous residence Total
Urban Rural a. Internal migrants
100.0 81.3
18.7 Urban
21.8 17.7
4.1 Rural
78.2 63.6
14.6 b. Immigrants
100.0 34.7
65.3
A small majority of 57 percent of all sedentary migrants internal and cross-border migrated between 2002 and 2012, 30 percent any time before 2002 and 14 percent in the last 2 years before the survey. The strongest
urbanisation effect was observed for the period 2002 to 2012, while in the more recent period since 2012 the ALCS data seem to hint at a more balanced exchange between urban and rural areas. However, the
number of observations for this limited period is too small to draw firm conclusions about the exchange of migrants during this short period.
In addition to the above stock of migrant labour
– including internal migrants and immigrants – there are Afghans who were part of Afghanistan’s population previously, but who left the country to seek
employment. The number of these labour emigrants who left the country in the 12 months preceding the survey amounted to 138 thousand persons. Contrary to internal labour migrants and labour immigrants,
these labour emigrants form a large majority
– 86 percent – of all emigrants. Iran is by far the most important destination for labour migrants, absorbing 98 thousand persons 61 percent of all labour emigrants.
5.4.2 Characteristics of labour migrants
Figure 5.19
shows the age- and sex distribution of the different labour-migrant populations. In most countries, labour-migrant populations tend to be male-dominated and concentrated in the young adult ages,
20 to 39. In Afghanistan too, the sex balance of migrants is very much tilted toward males, even very strongly. The representation of women among labour immigrants is 31 percent, among internal labour
migrants 23 percent and among emigrants virtually non-existent less than 1 percent. Labour emigrants are also mostly concentrated in the young adult ages, with 69 percent even in their twenties. Internal migrants,
on the other hand, have a rather balanced distribution between age 20 and 65, even more than the population at large see Figure 3.1. The persisting need or wish, even in old age, to move home to find employment,
may be symptomatic of a local labour market under considerable stress.
78
Figure 5.19: Sedentary labour migrant populations, by age, and by sex in percentages
a. Internal migrants b. Immigrants
c. Emigrants
Labour migrants – both internal migrants and immigrants – appear somewhat better endowed with human
capital than the total population in terms of educational attainment
Figure 5.20
. The proportion that has not any completed education is smaller for labour migrants
– 60 against 71 percent – whereas the shares with completed secondary education 12 percent and tertiary education 9 percent are larger. The sex-
specific distributions of educational attainment also show that labour migrants are more educated than the general population. One possible interpretation of this observation is that relatively better educated persons
have a higher propensity to migrate for employment: the demand for skills such as theirs may be stronger elsewhere, while their ability to compete for better jobs may also be greater in such areas of high demand.
Figure 5.20: Labour migrants and total population, by highest level of education attained in percentages
40 30
20 10
10 20
30 40
0-4 5-9
10-14 15-19
20-24 25-29
30-34 35-39
40-44 45-49
50-54 55-59
60-64 65-69
70-74 75-79
80-84 85+
Percentage 12 10 8
6 4
2 2
4 6
8 10 12
0-4 5-9
10-14 15-19
20-24 25-29
30-34 35-39
40-44 45-49
50-54 55-59
60-64 65-69
70-74 75-79
80-84 85+
Percentage Female
Male 12 10 8
6 4
2 2
4 6
8 10 12
0-4 5-9
10-14 15-19
20-24 25-29
30-34 35-39
40-44 45-49
50-54 55-59
60-64 65-69
70-74 75-79
80-84 85+
71 60
17 18
7 12
4 9
10 20
30 40
50 60
70 80
90 100
Total population Migrants
P er
ce n
tag e
No education completed Primary
Secondary Tertiary
79
5.4.3 Migrants’ labour market performance
