Drought and migration: a case study of rural Mozambique

This study explores the relationship between migration and droughts in a rural Sub-Saharan setting from which men commonly migrate in search of non-agricultural employment. We use data from the Men ’s Migrations and Women’s Lives project, which includes a longitudinal household panel conducted in rural Mozambique between 2006 and 2017, and combine it with the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, a high-resolution climate measure. The fixed-effect models assess the lagged im pact of droughts on the labor migration status of male household heads. We find an immediate increase in migration following a drought, peaking in the first year, then diminishing in the second year, with a slight resurgence in the third year. However, by the sixth-year post-drought, the likelihood of being a migrant turns negative. These findings demonstrate the complex associations of climate shocks with labor migration in low-income rural settings.
Source: Population and Environment - Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research