EDUCATION AND MIGATION IN HIGHLAND EDUADOR

by Rosemary Preston

A cross-sectional study of the relationship of education and migration, based on data from 546 families from five communities sought to identify i) how far observations of the relationship of education to migrant selectivity in studies based on aggregate data are valid in the case of small communities with little educational provision; ii) changes in the relationship over time; iii) differences in the relationship between indian and mestizo communities; and iv) popular awareness of the education/migration link.

A si~ificant relationship between educa- tional attainment and migratory propensity was common to all the case study areas, even in an indian community where mean attainment was less than two Grades. Furthermore, a hierarchy of migratory statuses according to educational experience was identified in the four principal case studies (Table 1). However there was little serious indication of brain drain since about half the migrants and and non-migrants alike had completed primary school. The apparent but very slight decline

Table 1

Educational attainment of migrant and non-migrant groups

(Mean grades completed of standardised sample aged 25-55 years)

Non-migrant 3.2 (80)

Intending migrant 3.4 (144)

Returned migrant 3.7 (144)

Absent migrant 4.6 (283)

in the migration rate among primary school graduates is probably, in keeping with the Conroy hypothesis, a symptom of the growing significance of secondary qualifications for employment and the devaluation of primary credentials. Educational attainment also related to the destination chosen: migrants to towns were more educated than those who moved to alternative rural areas, who over time tend to be less educated than those who never move. This was not so in one of the indian communities, where a pattern of intra- rural migration had become established early in the century, in association with petty commercial activity in the coastlands and involved the most educated of the community emigrants. This suggests that dynamic indian groups in need of cash may generate their own informal enterprise, perhaps in response to the difficulties they encounter in competition with mestizos elsewhere. Similar economic diversity was identified among indian groups in Mexico (Brooke with Oxenham: 1980).

The low education of intra-rural migrants from the mestizo communities, perhaps indica- tive of a new, severely disadvantaged rural sector, can be explained in terms of occupation as well as of destination. The proportion of those who move to areas of colonization and take up farming, the lowest status occupation, is now greater than among the population of the original communities, which are becoming more diversified. This depresses the educational levels of intra-rural migrants, since for other occupations their educational levels are equivalent to those of non-migrants. Non- migrants with unskilled formal employment and considerably more education than thei~ peers living elsewhere were the exception to this rule, possibly because of the scarcity of such openings in the communities and the intense competition for them among the local elite. Urban migrants were otherwise better educated than non-migrants and migrants to rural areas, even of comparable occupational status (Table 2).

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Non-Migrant

Rural Migrant

Urban Migrant

Table 2

Educational attainment of migrants by occupation

Craftsman Trader Ski l led Student Farmer/ Unskilled Employee Home- Employee

based

4.5 3.8 6.2 5.9 3.5 5.9 Mean grade completed

20 27 9 15 313 12 N

5.8 4.3 6.0 6.0 3.6 4.6 Mean grade completed

6 22 5 3 94 18 N

5.6 4.7 6.2 6.7 6.7 4.7 Mean grade completed

17 21 48 25 57 137 N

Contrary to findings of studies based on aggregate data, the most educated of migrants to both rural and urban destinations travelled to nearby areas and, in the case of urban migrants, not necessarily to the largest cities. It is unlikel7 that poorly educated people, not competing for high status or specialist careers, would realise better opportunities in large cities than in their local towns, where, in addition, they may benefit from being known. However, if the few available jobs do go to the most educated of the rural immigrants then, as appears to be the case, those with even less schooling may be forced to seek work else- where, notably in the informal sectors of the more distant regional and national capitals. By contrast, the lower attainment of those travelling the greatest distances to other rural areas is because they are predominantly farmers seeking new land, while many of those moving to local rural communities have other forms of employment.

Popular perceptions in two of the mestizo communities, revisited in 1978, indicate a marked sensitivity to the education/migration

relationship. In both communities it was felt that education was not a prerequisite for migration, but that those who acquired educa- tion ceased to identify with rural life and were particularly prone to migrate to towns. Opinions in the two communities differed in their perception of the importance of education in finding employment. Respondents in a remote southern parish, with few employment prospects in the local provincial capital sixty miles away, believed that qualifications were essential, while those with access to a wide range of unskilled opportunities in the rapidly growing national capital considered personal contacts to be more useful. This suggests a more stringent credentialism in small towns, rather than in expanding urban centres.

The research reveals an overall similarity in the relationship between education and migration at community and national levels, but detailed analysis identifies contrasts in migratory patterns and behaviours between communities in race, location and access to employment that are consequences of structural differences.

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