Selective Adult Migration and Urban-Rural Mortality Differentials in Burkina Faso

Adult mortality in developing countries is always higher in rural areas than in towns and cities. This disadvantage is attributed to more unfavourable health and economic conditions in rural areas, as well as to differences in population structure. However, the migration flows to cities that accompany urbanization may modify the composition of the populations in the areas of origin and destination. Using data from two demographic surveillance sites in Burkina Faso, one rural and the other urban, Bruno Lankoandé and Ali sié inquire here into the role that these population transfers can play in influencing the urban-rural mortality differential. Rural dwellers who migrate to town, as well as those who subsequently return home, are potentially selected in terms of health. To these selection effects are added behavioural changes that occur as migrants adapt to urban life. The links between migration and health turn out to be very complex, and data collected at origin and destination shed new light on health inequalities between urban and rural places of residence.