Networks, Perceptions, and Migration Decisions: A Comparative Analysis of Young Migrants from the Gurage and Wolayita Areas to Addis Ababa

In Ethiopia, rural-urban migration has been visibly dominated by the mobility of the youth. Scholarly works in the area have exhaustively identified the prominent causes as well as effects of this pattern of mobility. By going beyond the push-pull categorization, this study comparatively examines the role of social networks in the migration decision of young rural-urban migrants. Precisely, revealing the nexus between social networks, migrants’ perceptions of their home, and destination, vis-à-vis migration decision has been the concern of this inquiry. The study being of a qualitative type, interview and focus group discussion were employed as the main instruments of data collection. Having adopted a purposive sampling design, participants of the study were selected by using snowball and quota sampling techniques. The research has pursued a thematic design of analysis. By and large, young migrants’ perception consisted of mixed as well as erroneous characterization of their destination. Exaggeration of possibilities and reduction of impossibilities characterizes the defect in the flow of information from one end of the network to the other. As a result, the paradox between perceptions, expectations, and realities has urged migrants to rethink their choice of migration as a feasible response to their socio-economic circumstance. Social networks and migrants’ perception of their destination had played unequivocal role in the migration decision of both groups of the study. Besides, social networks determined not only migratory decisions but also sponsored it and have evidently played a role in the migratory projects of migrants. Keywords: Social networks, Perceptions, Migration decision, Migratory projects