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!

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!

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

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

Behind the research: Kudzai Vanyoro

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.

Kudzai worked with the programme back in 2015 as a Research Communications intern at the African Centre for Migration and Society, at the University of Witwatersrand. Kudzai went on to study a Masters in Critical Diversity Studies from the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies, and now works there in the Marketing and Liaison Office.

"Through my involvement with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, I learnt about how migration plays an important role in the inclusion and exclusion of people. I learnt that those who lay a claim to a particular space, as theirs, do so relying on the myth that they found the place, whether it's a city, municipality or a nation. However, my engagement with migration discourse during my internship at ACMS taught me that everyone is a migrant somewhere. 

Working with the programme broadened my understanding of space politics and reflectively placing myself in any understanding of a scenario. For example, as a migrant living in South Africa, I managed to write several blogs in which I placed my experiences at the centre of academic narration. This helped me learn that my body is actually a site of research data. My challenge now is how do I ethically retrieve and apply that 'data within'.  

I managed to write 2 blogs and contributed towards the marketing of the launch of Xenowatch an ACMS platform which monitors xenophobia in South Africa. I was also able to form strategic networks, I am still in touch with most of them today."

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, Kudzai!

Behind the research: Edward Asiedu

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.

Dr Edward Asiedu is a researcher, development economist and a lecturer at the University of Ghana, and joined the Migrating out of Poverty programme in 2018 to help examine the causal impact of migration on welfare.

“My involvement with the Migrating out of Poverty programme has shown me that, migration can be beneficial particularly to disadvantaged households, and therefore there is the need for local policies to bridge huge inequalities in communities. 

As a development economist, I have always worked on the design of interventions to address poverty in general in Ghana. Working on the programme has shown me that, addressing rural poverty without holistically looking at migration causes, trends, and impacts, and subsequently designing policies and interventions to address migration effects will defeat the overall purpose of the rural poverty reduction agenda.”

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, Edward!

Behind the research: Rozana Rashid

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.

Rozana is a Professor at the Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka who worked with Migrating out of Poverty between 2014 and 2016. During this time, she was the lead researcher on the study Gendered practices of remittance use and the shaping of youth aspirations: A case study of Bangladesh conducted under the Intra-Household-Dynamics research theme.

“The biggest lesson I learned through my involvement in Migrating out of Poverty is that migration brings significant transformation in the social and public discourses and practices. These may contribute not only to better understand the context, but also to make useful interventions so that all groups in the society benefit from migration, 
irrespective of their different abilities.   

Migrating out of Poverty has had a sustained and long-term impact on my academic and professional career as it provided me with the opportunity to develop my expertise on (previously unexplored) intra-household dynamics of migrant households. This later helped me write and publish two working papers, a book chapter and a policy brief and share the findings with academia, migration stakeholders and media in conferences and workshops at home and abroad.”

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, Rozana!

Behind the research: Emmanuel Quarshie

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. 

Emmanuel was Communications and Research Uptake Officer at the Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana from 2014 to 2019 during which time he completed a Master of Philosophy in Economics at the University of Ghana. He is now studying for a PhD in Economics at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

“Migrating out of Poverty has made me develop a keen interest in migration research. That led me to write my master’s thesis on remittances. Consequently, I went ahead to take up a PhD in Economics with my research focus on Migration, climate change and wellbeing.

From my time working on Migrating out of Poverty I am most proud of the opportunity I had to sit and dialogue with partners from other backgrounds in different countries without any form of discrimination and supremacy exerted. This meant a lot to me”

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, Emmanuel!

Behind the research: Kellynn Wee

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.

Kellynn is a Research Associate at Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore and worked with Migrating out of Poverty from 2015 to 2017. During that time she worked on the migration industry theme conducting policy research and was also involved in communications and social media outreach.

"Working on Migrating out of Poverty gave me the rare opportunity to inhabit multiple universes at once: not only was I able to test my conceptual ideas in the domain of academia, I was able to see how these forms of knowledge translated into the worlds of advocacy and policy. The reminder that these realms are not separate, but that it takes conscious effort to cross and translate between them, will continue to shape my work.   

I'm most proud of the relationships we built with local NGOs and schools through Migrating out of Poverty's emphasis on communicating our research. Speaking to young people about the situation of migrant domestic workers in Singapore and sometimes prompting them to volunteer, or even simply to re-examine a social reality that many of us take for granted, was a very rewarding experience.   

The biggest lessons I learned were from working with such an international team. The opportunity to speak with and learn from the excellent people I met from South Africa, Bangladesh, the UK, and Ghana was very precious to me.”

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, Kellynn!

Behind the research: Kudakwashe P. Vanyoro

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.

Kuda started out working with Migrating out of Poverty back in 2014 as a Communications Intern with the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS). He is now Research Communications Officer and studying for a PhD. In his 5 years with the programme he worked across almost all the research themes.

“The internship programme for me was just the stepping stone I needed to get into migration studies. I am now pursuing my PhD and academic career in migration studies, which would have not been possible without this opportunity. 

My proudest moment has been producing evidence to engage policy makers in South Africa for many years to come.”

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, Kuda!

Behind the research: Yordanos Seifu

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. 

Yordanos worked with the Migrating out of Poverty programme for over a year, as a migration researcher and writer, specialising in irregular migration, and migration industry in the African context.

“I’ve learned skills and methodology for transnational research communication, and particularly communication among migration researchers from the so-called global North and Global South countries. More importantly, I’ve examined theoretical arguments against findings from field research in the global South including dangerous places like the city of like Johannesburg and its satellite informal townships

The Migrating out of Poverty programme has boosted international networking, created platforms to present and disseminate the findings of the research, while also enabling comparative research analyses. 

I’m most proud of our publication of policy briefs and working papers as well as our dissemination of the field research findings to relevant stakeholders.”

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, Yordanos!