Between shamba and factory: preliminary results from a study of oscillatory labour migration in Kenya

Oscillatory labour migration is shown to predominate the labour market in Kenya, involving the periodic-physical movement by workers between town and the rural areas where their families stay and cultivate a shamba. This structure means that part of the reproduction cost of the labourer and his family is borne by non capitalist agriculture which in actual fact thus subsidises heavily industrial wages. An attempt is made to quantify the degree of subsidisation.