Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007

Graph 4.3. Households by migratory
characteristics of their members
38%
all households
households living below the poverty line
29%
31%
35%
27% Non-mover
40%
Migrant
Mixed
Non-mover
Migrant
Mixed
Looking at household structure in relation to
the poverty line, we can see that the mixed
households consisting of many members, as well as
single-member and two-member non-mover and
migrant households are the most affected by
poverty 2 .
Old-age single-member households account
for 59.5 percent of the total number of singlemember
households. However, by migration status,
out of the total number of persons in old-age singlemember
households, 37.7 percent are non-movers
and 62.3 percent migrants. According to LSMS
2007 results, every tenth old-age single-member
household is affected by poverty as follows: 13.6
percent (or almost every seventh within the nonmover
population) and 0.1 percent within the
migrant population. According to the type of
settlement, 15.1 percent of the old-age singlemember
non-mover households with expenditures
below the poverty line live in rural areas while 10.7
percent live in towns.
4.5. Conclusion
1. In Serbia overall the non-mover population is
larger than those who migrate. The non-mover
population is poorer than the migrant population.
Non movers have double the average amount of
people living below the poverty line.
2. Women are more likely to migrate than men
(20.5 percent higher). However, when examining
the distribution of the non-mover and migrant
population by the poverty line, the male and
female proportions are practically equal.
3. Urban non-movers are ten percentage points
more frequent than the migrant population in
these areas. Non-movers account for almost two
thirds of those living in rural settlements. The
rural population, especially in East and South
East Serbia, is poorer than the urban population,
regardless of migration status.
4. Those most affected by poverty are mixed
(containing both non movers and migrants)
households consisting of many members, then
two-member migrant households and singlemember
and two-member non-mover
households. It is especially disturbing to identify
that almost every tenth old-age single-member
household is affected by poverty.
Endnotes, Part 4
1 According to LSMS 2007 over a quarter of people in rural
settlements are over 60 years of age.
2 Analysis indicates that single-member and two-member nonmover
and migrant households (which are vulnerable to
poverty) are mostly elderly households where one or both
members are retired, housewives, or individual agricultural
labourers, etc. Mixed households with more members which
are vulnerable to poverty are most often single-family
households with a greater number of children or multigenerational
households.
56 Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007