Youth migration and perception on business start-up in Uganda

Peter Kisaakye (), Abel Nzabona (), Christian Kakuba (), John Bosco Asiimwe (), John Mushomi (), Richard Tuyiragize () and Stephen Ojiambo Wandera ()
Additional contact information
Peter Kisaakye: University of the Witwatersrand
Abel Nzabona: Makerere University
Christian Kakuba: Makerere University
John Bosco Asiimwe: Makerere University
John Mushomi: Makerere University
Richard Tuyiragize: Makerere University
Stephen Ojiambo Wandera: Makerere University

Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 2021, vol. 11, issue 1, 255-268

Abstract: Abstract The youth constitute a significant proportion (21%) of the total population in Uganda. They face challenges of unemployment, which forces them to migrate. This creates a high dependency burden since the majority are not employed and are seeking for paid work in both the private and public sectors. Migration is mostly used as a survival strategy to gain meaningful employment. Although a large body of evidence points to looking for employment as a major reason for youth migration, little is known about migrants’ perceptions towards starting their own business in Uganda. Drawing on a sample of 1157 youth migrants from a national cross-sectional survey on migration and employment, we seek to examine how perceptions influence job creation. Results from a multinomial logistic regression model pointed to four major findings. First, youth migrants who did not believe that they had the required skills to start a new business were more likely to be unemployed compared to those who believed they had the required skills. Second, the likelihood of being unemployed regular employee or paid worker was less among youth migrants who did not intend to start a new business in the next 1–2 years. Third, youth migrants who did not think it is a good opportunity to start a new business were more likely to be regular employees, and last, the likelihood of being a regular employee or a paid worker was observed to be higher for youth migrants who did not believe they had the required skills to start a new business than their counterparts who thought otherwise. The findings call for promoting positive attitude towards youth enterprise development. We recommend that promotion of entrepreneurship should be emphasised as an important component in solving youth unemployment in Uganda.

Keywords: Migration; Youth; Unemployment; Uganda; Enterprise; Perception (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40497-021-00287-w Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jglont:v:11:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s40497-021-00287-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... urship/journal/40497

DOI: 10.1007/s40497-021-00287-w

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research is currently edited by Nezameddin Faghih

More articles in Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research from Springer, UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().