National migration study : project completion report

The project was implemented by Boston University (BU). The migration study covered both internal migrations (rural-urban and rural-rural) and external migration (to and from mining jobs in the Republic of South Africa), and resulted in a 3-volume final report covering, inter alia: migration flows, sizes, and composition; rural settlement patterns; determinants of migration decisions; the relationship between migration and such factors as schooling, employment, and role of women; and the economic effects of mine labor migration. The project also sponsored three workshops, and its close liaison with various Batswana researchers resulted in a number of spin-off microstudies. Several lessons were learned from the project's survey component. (1) In carrying out national level surveys it is necessary to have an experienced person on hand from the beginning (the BU coordinator did not arrive until 10/78). (2) Significant differences exist between a questionnaire designed for a national level survey and one designed for small-scale field research. The project questionnaire was too long, and presented conceptual difficulties for enumerators. (3) A tabulation plan must be completed before the actual survey. (4) Compatibility of the survey instrument with computer data processing must be assured. The project demonstrates some of the advantages of research projects (e.g., the potential benefits of combining quantitative survey research with in-depth qualitative microstudies), but it also shows that research projects (like all other projects) require close monitoring. There was a serious lack of quality control over the 14 individual papers that comprise the project's final report. Further, realization of the potential advantages of the qualitative microstudies was not achieved due to lack of monitoring. The most important lesson - is it cost-effective to fund pure research projects? - is yet to be learned, as it is not yet known whether the migration study's findings will be of use for policy planning purposes. An evaluation should be conducted after Government of Botswana policymakers have had sufficient time to assimilate the project's final report.