Thursday 21 November 2019

Behind the research: Marta Schoch

Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium.

Marta worked for the programme between December 2018 and August 2019, during the final year of her doctoral studies in Economics at the University of Sussex. She then submitted her PhD thesis in September 2019 and is currently waiting for her thesis defence to be held in November 2019.
Before joining the programme, I was very interested in studying inequality, but it was really this experience that trained me to study issues like poverty and inequality in low-income countries. This research interest motivated one of the chapters of my thesis and my collaboration with the programme’s Ethiopia team on several research projects. 
During my participation in the programme, I studied the relationship between migration and household welfare in rural Ethiopia. I was interested in the relationship between migration and household expenditure in food and non-food items, remittances and improvements in household’s own perception of economic conditions. 
Working with Julie Litchfield and the Ethiopia team trained me to work with rich data on household consumption and indicators of household economic welfare. Working on this project, however, also allowed me to learn about land regulations, migration policy and a variety of topics specific to the context of Ethiopia. Collaborating with Migrating out of Poverty was crucial for me to gain this expertise. 
The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Marta!

Migrants and their remittances: Patterns and trends from Ethiopia

This blog was written by Yuki Kimura, a Research Assistant at the University of Sussex. 
(Email address: yukikimura96@gmail.com)

Given the increasing prominence of migration especially due to climate change and globalisation, deepening our knowledge of who and why they migrate and remit is necessary since migration may be a key way in which individuals and households would be able to escape poverty.

One of the central discussions in the migration literature is over remittances, which is a crucial mechanism via which migration can lift households out of poverty. Theoretical debates over why migrants remit has explored altruism, exchange or self-interest, or the mixture of both “impure altruism” or “enlightened self-interest”[1], as the possible reasons for why migrants may remit.[2]

Another debate focuses on whether there is a trend in how much migrants remit as their time away increases, or more commonly known as the “remittance decay hypothesis”, that is, the longer a migrant is away from home, the lower the probability of sending remittances and also the lower the amount. In this realm, empirical evidence has been mixed, with some studies finding that time has a negative effect on the amount and probability of remittances, whilst others have found a null effect of time.

There has also been a finding of an inverted U-curve relationship between time and both the amount of and the probability of remittances.[3] The theoretical reasoning for such a relationship is the following: due to set-up costs (such as migrating, finding a job, finding a place to live) and low or uncertain income when migrants have just migrated, the probability of remitting and the amount of remittances are both likely to be low at the beginning of their migration, meaning that as they establish themselves over time, both the probability and the amount of remittances will rise.

However, there is also a counteracting effect as time goes on: over time, migrants’ social connections with the community and their families are likely to diminish or weaken, leading to a decrease in remittances. For example, Liu and Reilly (2006) have found that the peak of remittance sending for internal migrants in Jinan, China is between 25 to 48 months.

Migrating out of Poverty in Ethiopia [4] collected information in 2018 on over 7000 individuals, consisting of non-migrants, internal, and international migrants. Just over 30% of the migrants remitted cash back to the household in the last 12 months. There are significant differences between international and internal migrants over whether they remit, however: 21.3% of internal migrants remitted cash back compared with 63% of international migrants.

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics


International migrants comprised 22.36% of the total migrants, most of whom a. migrated to the Middle East and b. were female, reflecting the recent surge of female Ethiopians migrating to the Middle East to work as domestic workers.[5] As for internal migrants, most (54.5%) migrated within the zone of their household and there is an even distribution of males and females.

Exploring the correlations:  
The correlations between characteristics of migrants and their likelihood of sending remittances home/how much they send were explored by regressing whether they remit or not/how much they remit on their age, months away, whether they are married, their education level, whether they have a child at home, gender, whether they are  an international or an internal migrant, and their relationship with the household head.

Preliminary analysis of the data suggests some interesting patterns. We explored the correlations between various characteristics of migrants and their likelihood of sending remittances home, and how much they send.[6] Firstly, not only does the data support the existence of an inverted-U relationship between time away and both the likelihood of migrants remitting and the amount of remittances sent home to their families, it also suggests that these peak at around 5 years.



For example, Figure 1, which shows the predicted probabilities that migrants remit back home against time, illustrates that although the probability of sending remittances home gradually increases as their months away increases to roughly 40% when their time away reaches around 5 years, the probability of remitting then declines as time away from home increases.

Similarly, from Figure 2, which shows the predicted amount that migrants remit back home on average per month against time, we can see that the predicted remittance amount increases gradually to about 5000 Birrs (roughly US$168.92), again at around 5 years before declining as time away increases.

This is longer than that typically found by the literature (2 to 3 years). This suggest that Ethiopian migrants take longer to settle down at their migration destination than we see in other contexts. Alternatively, it may imply that the amount of time it takes for social ties to erode between an Ethiopian migrant and their family is longer: given that kinship and familial ties play an important role in the Ethiopian community, remittances as informal familial arrangements may be more strongly institutionalised in their community compared with elsewhere.[7]

Breaking down the data by gender, we observe some differences between males and females, as illustrated by Figures 3 and 4. Although men and women have similar probabilities of remitting on average, this pattern over time is different.


Firstly, at any given time, a. women have a higher probability of remitting than men (Figure 3) and b. women are predicted to remit a larger amount back home (Figure 4).

Secondly, both the likelihood of remitting and the amount of remittances sent continues to increase for a longer period of time for women than for men: for women (men), the former continues to increase until 65 (53) months and the latter peaks at 65 (60) months for women (men). This may imply that women take longer to set up and establish themselves to be able to remit back home, or that the familial ties they have with their family are stronger than men.

Lastly, marital status matters for women but not for men: married women decrease their likelihood of remitting by 12.8 percentage points compared to unmarried women and they also, on average, remit nearly 2000 Birrs (US$68) less.

International migrants (which over 70% are female) are 38.5 percentage points more likely to remit on average and remit over 10,000 Birr more compared with internal migrants when controlling for some of their key characteristics. International migrants’ likelihood of remitting back home increases until 58 months into their migration before decreasing, 4 months later than when the likelihood of sending remittances peaks for internal migrants.

This difference possibly highlights the larger set up costs imposed on international migrants compared to internal migrants. Another disparity between the international and internal migrants’ remittance behaviour is that contrary to international migrants, there is no pattern between how long they have been away and the amount of remittances sent back home for internal migrants once we control for some key characteristics. In other words, for internal migrants, although the probability of remitting increases and then gradually falls over time, the amount remitted does not vary according to their time away.

This may reflect their limited ability in sending remittances home: there may not be scope for internal migrants to increase their remittances over time due to minimal income compared with international migrants.

Preliminary analysis using the survey dataset on Ethiopian migrants have revealed interesting patterns and trends in their remittance patterns and in particular that Ethiopia migrants increase their likelihood and the amount of remittances for a longer period than suggested by the literature.

It has revealed that women have a higher probability of remitting throughout their time away and the results have also suggested the possibility that familial ties for female migrants (whether it be due to altruism or self-interest) take longer to break down than for male migrants.

Further, international migrants remit considerably more both in terms of likelihood of remitting and the amount remitted, highlighting the differences between internal and international migrants’ capability of sending remittances home. Further investigation into migrant behaviours and their remittances are required to understand how and when migration can play a key role in aiding individuals and households to break out of poverty.


References

  • Adugna, G., 2019. Migration patterns and emigrants’ transnational activities: comparative findings from two migrant origin areas in Ethiopia. Comparative Migration Studies, 7(1), p.5.
  • Brown, R.P., 1997. Estimating remittance functions for Pacific Island migrants. World development, 25(4), pp.613-626.
  • Brown, R.P., 1998. Do migrants' remittances decline over time? Evidence from Tongans and Western Samoans in Australia. The Contemporary Pacific, pp.107-151.
  • Czaika, M. and Spray, J., 2013. Drivers and dynamics of internal and international remittances. The Journal of Development Studies, 49(10), pp.1299-1315.
  • De Regt, M., 2007. Ethiopian women in the Middle East: The case of migrant domestic workers in Yemen. Africa Studies Centre, Leiden, 15.
  • Dercon, S., De Weerdt, J., Bold, T. and Pankhurst, A., 2006. Group-based funeral insurance in Ethiopia and Tanzania. World development, 34(4), pp.685-703.
  • Hunte, C.K., 2004. Workers' remittances, remittance decay and financial deepening in developing countries. The American Economist, 48(2), pp.82-94.
  • Johnson, G.E. and Whitelaw, W.E., 1974. Urban-rural income transfers in Kenya: an estimated-remittances function. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 22(3), pp.473-479.
  • Krishnan, P., & Sciubba, E. (2009). Links and architecture in village networks. Economic Journal, 119(537), 917-949.
  • Liu, Q. and Reilly*, B., 2004. Income transfers of Chinese rural migrants: some empirical evidence from Jinan. Applied Economics, 36(12), pp.1295-1313.
  • Lucas, R.E. and Stark, O., 1985. Motivations to remit: Evidence from Botswana. Journal of political Economy, 93(5), pp.901-918.
  • Mitra, A., 2004. What motivates transfer of resources: altruism or principle of exchange?. The Journal of Developing Areas, pp.31-48.
  • Siegel, M. and Kuschminder, K., 2012. A Who’s Who in Ethiopian Migration?.
  • Zewdu, G.A., 2018. Ethiopian female domestic labour migration to the Middle East: patterns, trends, and drivers. African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, 11(1), pp.6-19.


Endnotes

[1] A term coined by Lucas and Stark (1985). 
[2] Discussion on motivations to remit available in Lucas and Stark (1985) and in Czaika & Spray (2013).
[3] Stark (1978) and Liu and Reilly (2006).
[4] The Ethiopia survey was collected as part of the Income and Remittances research theme, with the Ethiopia team led by Mr Asmelash Haile Tsegay and the Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa, Addis Ababa. Data for the 2018 survey and an earlier baseline survey in 2014 are available from the Migrating out of Poverty website
[5] Further discussion on female Ethiopians migrating to the Middle East as domestic workers can be found in G.A. Zewdu (2018).
[6] Correlations are explored (rather than causation given selection effects) via estimating regressions using ordinary least squares. 
[7] Extended families and kinship networks provide crucial assistance in times of need in Ethiopia, such as providing help during a health crisis discussed by Krishnan and Sciubba (2009) and covering funeral costs by setting up funeral societies as found by Dercon et al (2006). 

Friday 15 November 2019

Behind the research: Joseph Teye


Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium.

Joseph has worked with the Migrating out of Poverty programme as a member of the Ghana research team for all three phases. He was the Ghanaian-based lead investigator of the ‘Migration into Cities’ and the ‘Income and Remittances’ research projects. He also participated, as a researcher, in all the other consortium research projects in Ghana.
I have learned that in order to enhance the impact of any research project, there is a need to design a comprehensive research uptake plan at the inception phase of the project. I also found the appointment and training of research uptake officers to engage stakeholders very useful in enhancing the project impacts. 
Working with the programme has enhanced my capacity to work with researchers from various academic backgrounds. Involvement in the programme has also increased the visibility and research management capacity of the Centre for Migration Studies. 
I am proud of the fact that the Migrating out of Poverty research outputs are being used to develop migration and development policies in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa.
The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Joseph!

Thursday 14 November 2019

Behind the research: L. Alan Winters


Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium.

L. Alan Winters has been CEO of the Migrating out of Poverty consortium for six years, in his role as Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex.
It was a huge privilege and pleasure to be CEO of Migrating out of Poverty for six years. As an economist, I had worked on migration a good deal, both at Sussex and the World Bank, and, while I knew intellectually that migration was multidimensional and multidisciplinary, the consortium proved it to me. 
As CEO, I didn’t get to work with many of our researchers directly, but I read and discussed nearly all our output, and was impressed by its breadth and depth. Having strong research teams and research leadership in each of our partners allowed us both to see migration in a broad canvas, and, through comparative work, to obtain insights that were not available to other groups. Similarly, combining qualitative and quantitative work provided a rich seam of evidence that we are still working through. 
Among the things I most appreciated was the way in which, by working with each other both within the consortium and within the secretariat, we were able to achieve far more than we ever could have done as individuals or small groups. I really enjoyed our work on policy processes, in which three country studies came together to shed light on the chaotic and serendipitous process by which social science research can enter real policy-making, even in so contentious an area as migration. 
The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.


Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Alan!

Behind the research: Priya Deshingkar


Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium. 

Priya is Professor of Migration and Development at the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex. She has worked full time with the programme since the launch of the consortium in 2010. She was the Principal Investigator from 2017 to 2019 and prior to that, the Research Director in charge of overall intellectual leadership and oversight. She led the Migration Industry theme and jointly conducted research on migration brokerage and smuggling with partners in Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Bangladesh and Singapore.
Working with the Migrating out of Poverty programme has been my dream job. It gave me the opportunity to work with experts in African and Asian countries on the kinds of migration that matter to the poor. 
Together we were able to work on unpacking the blackbox of migration among historically disadvantaged communities and in marginalised regions through rigorous comparative research. 
It has been extremely rewarding to see the programme’s work having a real impact on policy change and building up a community of researchers with shared interests and capacities to study the links between migration, poverty and development. I have worked with wonderful partners and built strong bonds of friendship and collaborative research which I will do my best to carry on beyond the programme.
The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Priya

Behind the research: Julie Litchfield


Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium.

Julie has led the quantitative work of Migrating out of Poverty for 6 years, working with partners in Singapore, Bangladesh, Ghana, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe to understand patterns of migration and remittances, and the impact that migration has on household poverty.  

For the last three years she has led the Income and Remittances theme, focusing on generating robust evidence on the impacts of migration in three African countries, supporting partners to design and implement bespoke longitudinal surveys and to analyse the data using rigorous methods.
It has been an enormous privilege to work with partners across the Migrating out of Poverty consortium, both early career researchers and leading experts. I have learned a tremendous amount about the richness and diversity of migration experiences and how these are shaped by local and regional policy, economic and social contexts. 
Together we have been able to shed light on the complicated way migration affects households and also share our insights with policy makers and civil society in each country as well as international organisations.
The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Julie!

Return migration: a failure or success? Evidence from Ghanaian returnees

This blog was written by Karen Salazar Ruiz, a MSc Development Economics student at the University of Sussex and a Migrating out of Poverty Research Assistant. (salazarruizkaren@gmail.com)

Migration is an important part of household livelihoods, often undertaken to improve welfare, or to provide a form of insurance for household members at origin, and sometimes under duress.

Migration is often viewed as a one-way movement, from origin to destination, yet in reality, migration movements are not so linear, often involving movements onwards to other destinations, and also movements back to origin. Therefore, migration is better viewed as a dynamic phenomenon.

The OECD (2013) estimates that on average, about two international migrants in five will leave the host country within five years of their arrival. This is referred as return migration, which can be explained as “the act or process of going back or being taken back to the point of departure” (IOM, 2019). Return migration can be voluntary or forced. The former can be assisted or independent, while the latter involves force, compulsion or coercion.

The decision to migrate is influenced by the opportunity to improve economic, social or political conditions, which is why it is commonly believed that returning to the place of origin represents the case of a failed migration.

However, return migration may be better viewed as the next stage after migrants have achieved their target savings, accumulated assets and knowledge to invest and use in their home countries. These and many other reasons justify the return and support the idea that it cannot always be classified as unsuccessful.

Return migrants bring with them knowledge, expertise and skills that may be beneficial for the economic and social development of the country. Wahba (2015) studied return migration and its multiple potential gains. Living abroad provides migrants with the temporary opportunity to increase their income and savings, and acquire new skill sets to use later in their home country, where they will have higher purchasing power and better rewarded jobs.

In addition, return migrants are more likely to start a business than non-migrants, as the human capital, savings and experience overseas help increase their entrepreneurship (Wahba and Zenou, 2012).

In the case of Ghana, the migration dynamic is based on economic, social, political and environmental factors, such as poverty, landlessness and economic dislocations (Awumbila et al., 2008). The International Organisation for Migration has been an important driver of migrant resettlement and since 2006, they have assisted approximately 2,587 Ghanaian migrants to re-enter and reintegrate to the community.

There is a data gap for returnees due to the lack of definitions and of indicators. The Migrating out of Poverty household surveys include questions on return migrants in three African countries, including Ghana. Returned migrants are defined as “an individual who has been away for at least 3 months over the past 10 years, and who has lived in his/her native place for the last 12 consecutive months”.

The 2018 Ghana survey covers a sample of 1,429 households containing 9,889 individuals in the regions of Brong Ahafo, Northern Region, Upper West, Upper East, and Volta, from which 1,672 are current migrants and the rest are resident members. Given this definition, 308 returned individuals were identified. The reasons these individuals gave for return are the following:

Figure 1. Reasons to return 


Most of the migrants have returned from migration journeys made within the country: 82% of return migrants had been internal migrants. Given that 85% of current migrants (people still away from the household) are internal migrants; it does not appear that the incidence of return is much different between internal and international migrants. Libya, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Togo were the principal destinations of now returned migrants.

We do not see any evidence that men are more likely to return than women, but we do notice that returnees are generally older, more likely to be married and have children than migrants who are still away. On average, the returned migrants had been away home for 46 months. Around a quarter had acquired educational or work qualifications while being away and 40% had sent money back to their families at their place of origin in the year before they came home.

Regarding their overall experience away from home, 66% ranked it as positive, while the rest were exposed to negative situations. The risks that migrants face are not only financial as they encountered physical injuries, exposure to hazardous chemicals, unhygienic conditions, discrimination and harassment by city authorities. 

Although there are multiple channels through which return migration can be assessed, the Ghana survey highlights the fact that these individuals were able to earn money, support their household and accumulate human capital.

In the context of Ghana, it can be appreciated that the main reasons for return are social not economic. However, this does not imply that return migration does not contribute to economic development, as the data suggests that returnees are successful in accumulating savings and human capital when being away from home. Given that 72% of the returnees were employed at their destination, compared to the 15% of current migrants who report having a job at destination, it can be suggested that return migration should not be seen only as a failed attempt at migration but part of the complex way people and their families seek to improve their situation.

References 

  • Awumbila A., Manuh T., Quartey P, Tagoe C.,Bosiakoh T. (2008). Migration Country Paper (Ghana). Centre for Migration Studies. Migration Studies. University of Ghana. African Perspectives on Human Mobility Programme
  • International Organisation of Migration <https://www.iom.int/countries/ghana>
  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. International migration database 2013. 
  • Wahba, J. (2015). Who benefits from return migration to developing countries?. IZA World of Labor: 123 doi: 10.15185/izawol.123
  • Wahba, J., Zenou, Y. (2012). Out of sight, out of mind: Migration, entrepreneurship and social capital. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2012, vol. 42, issue 5, 890-903


Monday 11 November 2019

Behind the research: Mariama Awumbila


Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium.

Mariama has worked with the programme as partner director for the Ghana team, since the inception phase in 2009, at the Centre for Migration Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon. She has also conducted research on the migration industry, gender and generations, and research on migration into cities.

The biggest lesson I take from the programme is to work closely with varied stakeholders, not only from the usual academic community, but also with diverse stakeholders such as policymakers, the media and civil society. The research uptake component, which was a major focus was especially novel for me and I would recommend this approach to most academic research.
As founding Director of the Centre for Migration Studies (CMS), at the University of Ghana, the Migrating out of Poverty project was one of the first major research collaborations that CMS participated in after it was set up as a new Centre. The collaboration provided us with the opportunity, not only to work with a diverse range of leading migration scholars particularly in the global south, but to work on several research strands that highlighted the specificities of migration experiences in the African context, increasing the visibility of the Centre. 
I am proud to have worked with a great team of researchers and scholars across the partnership to provide insights into previously little studied areas such as the migration industry in Ghana, but especially proud of the opportunity it gave us to contribute to migration policymaking in Ghana and at the ECOWAS level. Through our work with the media, we have also helped to strengthen the capacity of media networks. 

The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Mariama!


Thursday 7 November 2019

Behind the research: Dorte Thorsen

Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium.

Dorte has led the programme’s work on gender analysis and qualitative research for five years, working with partners across the consortium to integrate questions about gender dynamics in migration from research design, to analysis, to developing evidence-based material for policy-making and programming.

During this time she has also worked with partners in Bangladesh, Singapore, Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal and Zimbabwe to understand the different processes of social change that lead to new categories of migrants and, in turn, the social changes generated by the absence of migrants, remittances and return migrants. For the past three years, she has led the Gender and Generations theme, focusing on bringing new angles to the study of migration by looking the impact on family relations, empowerment and equality issues in rural areas of four African countries.

I have truly appreciated working with long-time and new partners across the consortium, developing working relationships that thrived on the sharing of insights from all the research sites.  
Together we have learned a lot about how people deal with absence, and sometimes loss, and about the diverse ways that remittances can change everyday lives and social positions not only of migrants but also of the people back home. We are now sharing our findings with policy makers and civil society in each country as well as international organisations.

The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Dorte!

Migration, remittances and perceptions of quality of life of those staying behind in Ethiopia

This blog was written by Caroline Kariuki.

When I arrived at the University of Sussex on the 4th of February, it was cold, wet and rainy. I had read about the English winter weather but no amount of reading could have prepared me for that day. I think the effect was even more pronounced as 72 hours earlier, I had been sweating in the heat of Nairobi. I quickly learnt that boots, gloves and a good waterproof winter jacket are essential in such weather. Fortunately, as the days passed, I began to acclimatise and appreciate that there is beauty to be found in each season.

The warm welcome I received from Dr Julie Lichfield, Senior Lecturer in Economics, and her colleagues at the University of Sussex made it much easier for me to settle into the university as well as into the beautiful city of Brighton & Hove. During my visit, I had an opportunity to listen to researchers who presented their work during the weekly seminars held at the Sussex Centre for Migration (SCMR) and the department of Economics. While carrying out my research at the University of Sussex, I worked closely with Dr Litchfield who provided invaluable guidance and insight on the preliminary findings from our ongoing research, the title and subject of this blog.

Over the years, there has been increased interest on the relationship between migration and the well-being of household members staying behind in the origin country. Additionally, there is also literature that has considered the relationship between receiving remittances and well-being. For example, research by Gartaula, Visser and Niehof (2012) reveals that Nepalese women in remittance receiving households experience increased objective wellbeing (economic situation, access to food and water, child education, etc.) but not necessarily subjective well-being (feeling separated from partner who has migrated, feeling overburdened with work, problems with disciplining children, etc.).

A more recent study that captures the relationship between migration, remittances and subjective well-being of those staying behind has been carried out by Ivlevs, Nikolova and Graham (2019). Their study uses data from a wide range of origin countries and uses several subjective well-being measures. The authors find that having family members abroad is associated with greater well-being while receiving remittances is linked with increases in well-being especially in poorer contexts. However, we note that Ethiopia was not one of the countries used in the study by Ivlevs, Nikolova and Graham (2019).

Our research aims to fill this gap by presenting findings on the relationship between migration, remittances and perceptions of quality of life of those staying behind in rural households in Ethiopia.  The data used in our research is from one of the Migrating out of Poverty household surveys collected in Ethiopia in September 2018 for the Income and Remittances theme.

Initial findings on the relationship between migration, remittances and perceptions of quality of life of rural households


The questions posed to households with and without migrants about their perceptions of their quality of life include:
  1. How satisfied are you now about your household’s living conditions?
  2. Comparing now and five years ago, how would you describe the overall quality of life (based on indicators of the economy, health and education) in your household?

Household living conditions and migration

Figure 1: Relationship between satisfaction with household living conditions and migration
Preliminary findings show that households with migrants (internal and/or international) tend to be more satisfied with their household living conditions compared to households without a migrant. Figure 1 above illustrates that 59% of households with both internal and international migrants are satisfied with their living conditions, compared to 43 of households with only internal migrants and 37% of household with no current migrants. Some of this difference is  undoubtedly related to remittance recept: both internal and international migrants take advantage of better work opportunities and save part of their income to send home. A common use of remittances is improvement of the family home.

Household living conditions and remittances

Figure 2: Relationship between satisfaction with household living conditions and remittances
From Figure 2 above, it is evident that households in receipt of remittances seem more satisfied with their living conditions compared to households that do not receive remittances. This supports the view that remittances are often spent on improving housing. The photos at the end of this blog (Figure 5) show the improvement in housing over time which survey participants attribute to receiving remittances. 

Household overall quality of life and migration

Figure 3: Relationship between overall quality of life and migration

Turning to how respondents view their overall quality of life, we see a similar pattern of greater satisfaction among households with migrants, Figure 3 above illustrates that households with migrants (internal and/or international) are more likely to report that their overall quality of life has improved compared to households without a migrant. This is again likely be explained by the receipt of remittances, particularly from international migrants, who, our data suggests, send larger volumes of remittances than internal migrants. Literature shows that remittances can lead to improved sanitary conditions, healthier life styles, proper healthcare and greater educational attainment (Amuedo-Dorantes, 2014).

Household overall quality of life and remittances

Figure 4: Relationship between overall quality of life and remittances
Figure 4 above illustrates that remittance receiving households are more likely to respond that their overall quality of life has improved compared to households that do not receive remittances. Out of the households that receive remittances, 74% report that their overall quality of life has improved, compared to just 54% of the households that do not receive remittances.

Further analysis

The next step in this research will involve using econometric models to estimate the relationship between migration, remittances and income, and measures of subjective well-being.  We will explore how this relationship varies across different contexts. The effect of household head characteristics and the household socio-demographic characteristics will also be considered in this analysis.

Ethiopia is an interesting case study because of the extent of migration both internally and internationally. Our data also suggests that there has been a lot of return migration in response to inter-ethnic conflicts in the country and restrictions on migration to the Gulf States. Furthermore, it will be interesting to find out if Ethiopia conforms to the results presented in the research carried out by Ivlevs, Nikolova and Graham (2019).




References


  • Amuedo-Dorantes, C. The good and the bad in remittance flows. IZA World of Labor 2014: 97
  • Gartaula HN, Visser L, Niehof A. Socio-Cultural Dispositions and Wellbeing of the Women Left Behind: A Case of Migrant Households in Nepal. Soc Indic Res. 2012;108(3):401–420. doi:10.1007/s11205-011-9883-9
  • Ivlevs, A., Nikolova, M. & Graham, C. J Population Economics (2019) 32: 113.

Tuesday 5 November 2019

Behind the research: Allison Baldasare


Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium. 

Allison joined the Migrating out of Poverty team in 2013 at the University of Sussex as an Administrative Assistant and worked her way up to Programme Manager in less than four years. Over the past six years, Allison has been involved in all aspects of the programme administration including finance, recruitment and outsourcing, communications, publications, conference, meeting and event planning.
Working as part of the team in a professional services capacity, rather than a research capacity, allows for insights into the research community that have less to do with results and more to do with process. In the six years spent working with colleagues in the UK, Asia, and Africa, the biggest lesson for me has been in recognising that good working relationships can only be built over time, with face-to-face contact. I cannot recommend enough how making time and budget available for periodic collaborative meetings, allowing partner staff from all countries to come together throughout the project’s lifetime, helped improve the teamwork, broaden the scope of the analysis and strengthened the resulting research and uptake activity. 
As this was the first experience of my career working within the academic/research sector, I have come to very much admire the work and goals of my Migrating out of Poverty colleagues and our Department for International Development Research and Evidence colleagues. I will take forward into my future roles the sense of enquiry and justice that I felt in working with these intelligent and sensitive people. 
I feel grateful for the experiences both in the UK and in partner countries, learning just a little bit more each day about how different lives are led all around the globe and how being more familiar with these differences can only help to make the world a more equal and fair place. 
As a programme manager, my pride comes from each successfully finished project and all resulting dissemination. Therefore, being at the end-stage now, with over 30 projects successfully investigated and closed, I am happy to look back at Migrating out of Poverty’s final report, and as a cog in a ticking watch, know that I was part of that something, and without me, as without any of our colleagues, it likely would not have been the same.
The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Allison!

Monday 4 November 2019

Behind the research: Alemu Tesfaye


Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe.

This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium. 

Alemu has been working with the Migrating out of Poverty programme since 2017, and is currently working as a Knowledge and ICT Manager at OSSREA, in Ethiopia. Alemu has focused on synthesising research on themes of gender and generations, migration industry, and income and remittances.

When I joined the team as a research communications officer, I had little knowledge of migration and migration research. I learnt a lot about formal and informal means of migration, routes of migration, the gender dynamics of migration and its impact on the household. 
It has added to my experience as a communications officer, boosting my CV and giving me confidence to engage more in the issues of migration and migration research. 
I am proud of being part of this programme, and for being able to produce communication products such as infographics and animated videos, synthesising complex research findings and presenting them in a way that is easy to understand. 
The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Alemu!

Thursday 17 October 2019

Behind the research: Fekadu Adugna


Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium.

Fekadu is an assistant professor of Social Anthropology at Addis Ababa University, and researcher at the Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA). Fekadu worked as principal investigator for the migration industry theme in Ethiopia.

The biggest lesson I have learnt through my involvement in the Migrating out of Poverty programme is the gap between actors in migration governance, and the migrants and their families concerning their perception about migration. Unless that gap is narrowed, migration cannot be properly understood and governed. 
Participation in Migrating out of Poverty totally re-shaped my present and future research. I came from a totally different research focus, and now my research agenda is all on migration, forced displacement and refugee studies. 
What I am really proud of is the fact that I somewhat succeeded in understanding the organisation of migration and migration facilitation from below, the way the migrants and their families understand it. 
The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Fekadu!

Friday 4 October 2019

Behind the research: Loren Landau


Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium.

Loren Landau is a Senior Researcher at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) at Wits University in Johannesburg, and was Director between 2006 to 2014 when the programme was in its early stages.
ACMS was one of the founding members of the consortium.  As an emerging research centre, this was an opportunity to partner with progressive scholars and institutions across the global south. In doing so, it offered a unique opportunity to shape research and policy agendas at multiple scales. By working through productive tensions, the consortium became stronger, the ACMS was able to expand its scope and ambitions, while I gained perspective and insight. 
Whether through my work on local government or overseeing broader questions of labour migration, urbanisation, and the migration industry, the consortium’s successes and shortcomings served as an intense education. Beyond generating empirical insights and knowledge, I – and the consortium –helped lay foundations for ever more critical and constructive consideration of partnerships, in engagement, and in the politics of research beyond the wealthy west. 
It has encouraged me to more deeply explore the formal and informal means of migration management at multiple levels while shifting how I work. Many now speak about south-south partnerships as the future of research. With Migrating out of Poverty we were able to forge and formalise those partnerships more than a decade ago.
The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Loren!

Thursday 3 October 2019

Behind the research: Mohammad Jalal Uddin Sikder


Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium.

Mohammad Jalal Uddin Sikder serves as an Associate Professor at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), and worked with the consortium between 2013 and 2016. During this time, he worked on the policy processes theme, focusing on a study of ‘Cross-border movement of the Rohingyas from Burma: Exclusion, vulnerability and survival strategies’. Mohammad also conducted research on ‘Gendered practices of remittance use and the shaping of youth aspiration: A case of Bangladesh’, under the gender and generations research theme. 
The biggest lesson I have learned through my involvement in the programme is a theoretical understanding and explaining on migration, life choices, life chances, vulnerabilities, social inclusion  and exclusion and social resilience. These contribute to an understanding of the ways in which migration and remittances contribute to development and shape social actions and relations in Bangladesh. 
Attending the“Poverty Research Consortium Meeting”, organised by the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) in March 2014 was the most important moment for me because I met the team and could share our knowledge. I learned a lot of enlightening information, particularly about research communications and planning strategies, very important aspects of the project. 
The Migrating out of Poverty programme has allowed me to build a very strong academic and research reputation in Bangladesh, and South Asia. Based on two research papers, I have already published two working papers, two book chapters to Routledge and two policy briefs. I have also received invitations to present research findings in national and international conferences, participated national and international TV talk shows and published comments to national and international newspapers and magazines.     

The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Mohammad!

Tuesday 17 September 2019

Behind the research: Kefasi Nyikahadzoi

Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium.

Professor Kefasi Nyikahadzoi started working with the Migrating out of Poverty with the Centre for Applied Social Sciences at the University of Zimbabwe, coordinating work on the income and remittances theme.

“One of the biggest lessons I learnt is the importance of taking research results back to the communities who provided the data, for validation.  I also learnt how to provide qualitative explanations for emerging trends and patterns in the descriptive statistics. 
We are very proud of the interactions that we had with national and district level stakeholders. Through those interactions, we were able to contribute towards policy designed to improve the welfare of migrant-sending households.”
 The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Kefasi!

Behind the research: Doudou Gueye

Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium.

Doudou has been working with the programme as part of his role as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Ziguinchor University in Senegal. Doudou led the research on the migration industry in Senegal. 


"I have been involved in several research projects but Migrating out of Poverty had a certain uniqueness for me. First, because of its transnational dimension (Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia, United Kingdom etc.) and I was a Francophone in the English-speaking crowd. Wow, what a great experience! Its multidisciplinary and multi-space character complemented the programme beautifully. Behind the research, I am sure I have made sincere friendships. The lesson learned from this experience is that life is not an individual affair, and migrants demonstrate this all the time. 
Who are migration "industrialists"? We put forward a model of the actors and their roles, without forgetting the analysis of the complexity of the journey. The debate on the individualisation of African migration was based on  facts gathered from our field of study. Finally, the research led us to explore the role of marabouts and other  visionaries in the migration process. These are men truly in the shadows, but they are nevertheless increasingly central actors in migration. Looking forward to seeing you soon so we can produce more great research."
The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Doudou!





En français

Au cours des 10 dernières années, le consortium 'Migrating out of Poverty' a utilisé l'enthousiasme et l'expertise de nombreuses personnes à travers le monde. Cette série de blogues se concentre sur les gens derrières la recherche, qui nous ont partagé des réflexions personelles et apprentissages de l'expérience de travail avec le programme. 

Doudou travaille avec le programme dans le cadre de son rôle comme maître de conférences dans le department de la sociologie a l'UASZ (Sénégal). Doudou est chercheur en chef du projet sur l'industrie de la migration.

"J'ai été associé à plusieurs projets de recherche mais le MOOP avait une certaine singularité pour moi. D'abord, de par sa dimension transnationale (Sénégal, Ghana, Ethiopie, Royaume Uni,...) et je fus un francophone dans la foule anglophone. Wouah, quelle belle expérience. Ensuite, de par son caractère pluridisciplinaire et Multi espaces, quelle belle complémentarité. Derrière la recherche, je suis certain de m'être fait des amitiés sincères. De cette expérience, la leçon apprise est que  la vie n'est pas une affaire individuelle, et d'ailleurs les migrants nous le démontrent tout le temps. 
Qui sont ces "industriels" de la migration ? Une modélisation des acteurs et de leurs rôles a été proposée sans oublier l'analyse de la complexité du voyage. Le débat sur l'individualisation des migrations africaines a été posé sur la base des faits recueillis à partir de notre terrain d'étude ? Enfin, la recherche nous a amené à explorer le rôle des marabouts et autres voyants dans le processus migratoire. Véritables hommes de l'ombre, il n'en demeure pas moins qu'ils sont des acteurs de plus en plus centraux dans la migration. A bientôt pour d’autres belles productions."
Le programme 'Migrating out of Poverty' est un véritable travail d'équipe, et nous apprécions le rôle joué par chaque individuel dans la production et la diffusion de recherche. 

Merci pour votre travail acharné avec le programme 'Migrating out of Poverty', Doudou!

Monday 16 September 2019

Behind the research: Benoît Tine

Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium.

Benoît has worked with the programme as a Researcher at Ziguinchor University (UASZ, Senegal) for two years. Benoît was the research lead on the gender and generations theme in Senegal, and a senior researcher on the migration industry theme.


"Migration, despite appearances, has visible and invisible consequences for households, which are forced to adapt to new situations. Social networks make it possible to experience marriage differently (e-conjugality); monogamy seems to have taken over and migrants, without forgetting their relatives, are more aware because "travelling" is a school of life. 
The Migrating out of Poverty research programme has enabled me to establish regular contacts with many researchers on several continents over a long period of time. Socialisation and comparing our research have made it possible to create a real dynamic, that is not about to stop, but is opening doors to a promising future."
The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Benoît!




En français

Au cours des 10 dernières années, le consortium 'Migrating out of Poverty' a utilisé l'enthousiasme et l'expertise de nombreuses personnes à travers le monde. Cette série de blogues se concentre sur les gens derrières la recherche, qui nous ont partagé des réflexions personelles et apprentissages de l'expérience de travail avec le programme. 

Benoît travaille avec le programme comme chercheur a l'UASZ (Sénégal) depuis deux ans. Benoît est chercheur en chef du projet genre et génération au Sénégal et chercheur senior dans le projet  sur l'industrie de la migration.


"La migration contrairement aux apparences entrainent des conséquences visibles et invisibles dans les ménages qui sont ainsi obligés de s’adapter à la nouvelle donne. Les réseaux sociaux permettent de vivre le mariage autrement (e-conjugalité); la monogamie semble avoir prendre le dessus et les migrants sans oublier leurs proches sont plus avertis parce que « voyager » est une école de la vie.
La recherche m’a permis d’entrer en relation de façon régulière, pendant une longue période avec des dizaines de chercheurs établis sur plusieurs continents. La socialisation, les  comparaisons de nos recherches,  ont permis de créer une véritable dynamique qui n’est pas prête de s’arrêter mais ouvre des portes sur des lendemains prometteurs."

Le programme 'Migrating out of Poverty' est un véritable travail d'équipe, et nous apprécions le rôle joué par chaque individuel dans la production et la diffusion de recherche. 

Merci pour votre travail acharné avec le programme 'Migrating out of Poverty', Benoît!