Migration: Analysis of the NIDS Wave 1 Dataset

This paper investigates measures of migration captured in the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), and it compares these measures, and how information is collected, with other household surveys conducted in South Africa. The paper is divided into five sections. The first section describes households with non-resident (or absent) household members. A key reason why individuals may be absent from a household for much of the year is because they are migrant workers. The second section therefore looks specifically at households which report migrant workers as absent household members. Section three describes inter-household transfers received by households, and it considers the relationship between households that report transfers and households that report migrant workers. The fourth section investigates migration more generally as the movement of people across space and the change in an individual’s place of residence. The last section summarises the main similarities and differences between NIDS and other household surveys in South Africa.