city are high. while urban earning

city are high. while urban earning opportunities for women are often limited. A wife and children remaining on the farm can grow their own food and perhaps even raise a cash crop. Where land is under communal control, as in much of tropical Africa there is no compensation for those who give up ming. A wife who comes to town gives up an assured source of food and cash to join a husband on low wages. Circular migration was common in tropical Africa in colonial times and was actively promoted by employers seeking cheap labour. It is still prac- tised in 17 and exceptional circum some regions, in stances groups of migrants may control a particular niche in the urban economy to such an extent that its members can maintain a pattern of circular migration as they replace one another on the job. This has been reported in the case of ice-cream vendors in Jakarta 18 and construction workers in