Zambian Breadwinners Leave for the City: Rural-Urban Migration and the Zambian Family

African societies have experienced rapid urbanization since the post-colonial era, causing an increase in mass migration across and within countries’ boundaries. Modern research on rural-urban migration in Sub-Saharan Africa generally focuses on economic impacts such as the distribution of remittances, or health aspects such as the spread of HIV/AIDS into the rural areas. However, the social effects of internal migration on family structure and processes are rarely researched. In Zambia, families represent an important carrier of social identity and belonging. The purpose of this study is to examine how the migration of rural breadwinners to urban areas affects Zambian families in terms of social structure and processes. I highlight the different strategies adopted by families to preserve relationships between urban migrants and their rural home communities. I also focus on how migration shapes the perceptions of good parenting by contrasting rural and urban child rearing narratives. The observations are based on a series of interviews and focus groups with urbanites and villagers in Zambia directly affected by internal migration.Bachelor of Art