Figure 7. Reason for absence in the survey data
Youth Other adults 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
No absence
Seasonal work
Travel for work
Attended a ceremony
Other family reasons/vacation
Health reasons
90
100
Source: Analysis of LSMS-ECVMA pooled data, for individuals reporting absence in last 12 months.
More generally, resources for migration are mobilised either by selling part of the agricultural production or a few heads of domestic animals, or by receiving money from a relative who has already migrated. However, children whose parents have low agricultural yields cannot invest in livestock and, because of their lack of assets, cannot access credit and thus find it difficult to mobilise sufficient resources for migration (FGD, male, Gueben Zogui). This inability to finance even internal rural-urban migration is particularly common amongst the chronic poor, a point to which we return in Section 4.
3.3.
Gender norms
3.3.1. Occupational segregation with underlying gendered norms The fortunes of young men and women in Niger are differently determined, but intertwined, in a context of significant change in social norms and precarity in working conditions and the job opportunities they have access to, compared to the generations before them. Women are generally responsible for household domestic work, for water supply (fetching at the well) and the care of children, whereas men are responsible for bringing in the main revenues. Spouses do not customary pool their income and women have as much freedom to spend the money they earn, but they may have to redistribute some to thank their in-laws. Young women, particularly, often remain under the authority of in-laws when they live under the same roof. The negotiation with the in-laws to trade (outside the household), participate in training or continue studies generally has to be done with the mother-in-law, asking for permission. In poor areas, a majority of older household heads follow gender norms regarding domestic arrangements where the husband is the breadwinner and married women are expected to be at home with the children doing unpaid domestic and farm work and small income-earning work from home. This practice persists in some wealthy households and is particularly present in those adhering to the
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