Dissertation
PATHWAYS TO HOMELESSNESS: THE CASE OF SINGLE MOTHERS IN HAWASSA, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2020
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/111876
Abstract
This research mainly focuses on understanding homelessness from the perspective of homeless single mothers in Hawassa, Ethiopia. The aim of the study was to identify the pathways that led single mothers into street homelessness. To achieve the aim, I conducted ethnographic data collection from homeless single mothers in Hawassa in 2016 and 2017 and obtained detailed life history data through a semi-structured and repeated interview process. Using an ethnographic exploratory method, I analyzed themes and patterns emerging from the mothers’ life histories to explain how they became homeless. The analysis identified two primary pathways that explain how single mothers in Hawassa streets became homeless. These are childhood rural-to-urban migration and adult rural-to-urban migration pathways. Although rural-to-urban migration is common for all mothers, the study found that participants' age at first migration and urban experience before homelessness vary between childhood and adult migrant mothers. Accordingly, the study concludes that mothers who migrated to the urban area during their childhood were pushed to homelessness by concealed violence in domestic labor, where young girls join for job opportunities. Adult rural-to-urban migrant mothers became homeless because poverty, gender, and labor discrimination interactively shattered their ability to avoid homelessness.
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Details
- Title
- PATHWAYS TO HOMELESSNESS: THE CASE OF SINGLE MOTHERS IN HAWASSA, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA
- Creators
- Wolayte Bogale Gessamo
- Contributors
- Courtney L Meehan (Advisor)Marsha B Quinlan (Committee Member)Andrew I Duff (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 168
- Identifiers
- 99900581700101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation