The Decline in Migrant Labor and its Impact on Diversified Rural Livelihoods in a Mountain Area of Lesotho

Abstract

Lesotho is a mountainous country located in Drakensberg Mountains in southern Africa. This small, landlocked country is about 30,000km and is completely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. (South Africa). Its rural inhabitants depend on agriculture and pastoralism; they also work as migrant laborers in mines of South Africa. Maize and wheat are the staple crops, cattle are raised for food, and sheep and goats are raised for sheared wool and mohair that are sold to provide cash income.  Migrant labor is also a very important source of livelihood, and most young men, after initiation, undertake such labour. Following the discovery of gold in South Africa in 1886, the population of migrant workers in South Africa grew constantly, and Lesotho became known as a labor reserve for these mines. Soon after settlement of mountainous areas of altitudes of 2,000 m or higher began the late 1800s, the population began to rely on local workers who migrated to neighboring countries for jobs to supplement local earnings. Thus, wages sent home by migrant laborers have been responsible for the development of mountain farmland along with agriculture and livestock farming. However, since the 1990s, factors such as the reduced price of gold, resource exhaustion, and wage inflation have resulted in a great retrenchment of Basotho workers, and the number of workers has declined dramatically. This paper focuses on rural villages in the mountain region of Lesotho where cash earning activities were incorporated into residents’ livelihoods during the early stages of village establishment, and analyses the impact of macro-social changes in South Africa after the 1990s on this mode of livelihood. This research was conducted in L village, in the mountainous Mokhotlong district, for a total of 12 months (Aug 2005- March 2006, January-March 2008, March 2009). During the research period, the author lived in the village and interviewed villagers, using the English and Sesotho languages, about their personal histories, livelihoods and cash income. Interviews that focused on the personal histories and experiences of migrant laborers found that most men in their 60s and younger had experienced migrant labor, and their incomes had been spent on buying items for daily life, clothes, and livestock such as cattle and sheep. After the 1990s, the reduction in available mine employment had a serious effect on households in L village, which lost a major source of income. A decrease in remittances also reduced the ability to purchase livestock, a situation made worse by an increase in stock theft in the country. This resulted in a shift of livelihood modes from a non-agricultural base to an agricultural base, with villagers focusing on agriculture as a significant source of income. However, this has led to another concern; an increasing burden in the land.