Introduction

The majority of the world's population lives in urban areas, a phenomenon previously unknown in human history (UN, 2014). The trend of urbanization is expected to continue, potentially reaching two thirds of the global population by 2050. Despite an increasingly urban world, global poverty remains disproportionately rural, with rural residents comprising three fourths of the world's poor (Olinto et al, 2013). The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) claims that although food availability on the African continent has increased by 12% and poverty has decreased by 23% since the early 1990s, rural areas still remain disproportionately food insecure (FAO, 2015). Volatile market prices, poor soil conditions, declining landholding size, limited employment opportunities, as well as the way individuals and communities prepare for and confront these challenges, are critical for understanding the geographic inequality of rural areas. One of the most significant outcomes of these challenges is the migration of youth to urban areas, which contributes further to an uncertain future for farming and food security in rural communities.

This chapter seeks to complement and enhance the existing global, regional, and national data on migration and rural inequality with a case study from southern Ethiopia. We analyze the socially differentiated dynamics of youth migration from rural to urban areas, and how this impacts livelihoods, family life, and access to food in rural communities. Ethiopia stands out as a unique case because it has a lower than average urban population in Africa (below 20%), as well as a lower than average urban population within Eastern Africa, and has Africa's second largest population at 97 million (CSA, 2011; UN, 2014).

Sumberg and Okali (2013) call for more empirical evidence about the experiences of migration as an indication of evolving geographies of opportunities that do not homogenize the diversity of contexts by taking a differentiated view of young people who have uneven talents, access to resources, networks, and interests. This chapter highlights the opportunities for youth living in rural Ethiopia as it relates to their choices to migrate or not. We draw upon qualitative and quantitative research that emphasizes the perspectives and agency of different community members (skilled/unskilled, young/old, and male/female) often missed in a discourse that tends to rely heavily on macro-level casual explanations of migration.