Habtamu Getnet

The Lives of Shoe-shinning Children: Livelihoods and Survival Strategies Among the Migrant Shoe-shinning Children Habtamu Getnet

Children are the major victims of urban and rural poverty and of urbanization. Rural-urban migration by children is the result of unfavorable demographic, social, and economic conditions in the rural milieu. Chronic livelihood poverty in rural areas which traditionally relied upon subsistence farming leads children to move to cities to find economic niches in the low paid informal sectors of urban areas. They were obliged to quit school and migrate to the city in search of employment in the informal sector for the reason that rural parents are not able to fulfill their food and other material and financial demands. In other words, poor rural parents are unable to provide education and basic survival needs to rise out of the cycle of poverty. In general, children's migration is a response to social, economic, demographic changes in society which usually are visible at the household level. More specifically, their migration, often, is economically- motivated, looking for a better life for themselves and their families. Therefore, the children?s migration can be better explained in terms of search for employment and survival strategy.