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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Migration and public policy in Lesotho: shifting the boundaries
| Panel |
75. Migration reshaping the landscape of African development: bridging theory-practice and sending-receiving gaps
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| Paper ID | 140 |
| Author(s) |
Johnston, Deborah
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | This paper explores the juxtaposition between the models of policy makers and the actual dynamics of migration in Lesotho, and the manner in which this affects poverty reduction policies. Using previously unreported research, this article argues that the reality of migration requires policy-makers to change both the content of poverty reduction policies and to change poverty monitoring systems.
In the official literature for Lesotho, the methodology for both monitoring poverty and understanding its causes are focused on national economic and social factors. While the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) in Lesotho is internationally acclaimed for the intensity of the consultation that took place during its drafting, this paper argues that it is does not include significant recognition of the role of migration in the strategies of the very poorest. This is because the PRSP approach precludes a focus on the heterogeneous nature of poverty and its determinants, and does not adequately recognise the supra-national system of labour markets in which many poor people operate. This is surprising, inter alia, given the experience of labour migrancy in Lesotho. Furthermore, in much of the official literature, the poorest are specifically envisaged to be rural households who will be most affected by changes in domestic agriculture.
Using a case study of some of the poorest rural households, the article argues that the focus of our understanding of poverty must encompass important factors that have a supra-national character. These include the manner in which the poor access wider regional labour markets through migrancy and remittances. Male labour migration to the South African mines was an important source of employment and income in Lesotho until the 1990s. It is now in decline, but research shows the continued importance of more varied legal and illegal migrancy opportunities. However, these opportunities are not static, and themselves reflect the nature of competing labour sources as well as South African economic performance.
This picture of poor households being impacted on by changes in regional markets for their labour is at odds with strategies in Lesotho that focus on the poor as being isolated in rural areas and primarily impacted on the changes in local agricultural markets. As such, it has often been assumed that domestic agricultural development strategies must be prioritised to act on rural poverty. By changing our conception of the rural poor and recognising the various ways in which they are impacted by wider markets, a broader range of policy opportunities is identified.
Similarly, initiatives to improve poverty monitoring in Lesotho have focused on improvements in sources of information about domestic market trends and government policy. This article argues that regional and even international market trends and a wider set of policy decisions will impact on the numbers and type of poor people.
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