The impact of inter-provincial migration on the labor market outcomes in two developed provinces in South Africa

Abstract

This study used the South African Census 2011 data to examine the impact of interprovincial migration on the labor market outcomes in the Western Cape and Gauteng, the two most developed and popular inter-provincial migration destination provinces in South Africa. In both provinces, the residents were divided into four groups: permanent residents, intra-provincial migrants, long-term inter-provincial migrants and short-term inter-provincial migrants. The descriptive statistics indicated that both short- and long-term inter-provincial migrants into the two provinces were likely to be young people aged 15-34 years, unmarried African urban residents with 11-12 educational years on average, coming from households with three members. These interprovincial migrants enjoyed lower unemployment rates than the permanent residents, but the intra-provincial migrants remained the best-performing group with the lowest unemployment rate and highest share of employed persons involved in formal sector activities.