Migrant Households Research Articles

Happiness perspective of migrant labor households in the northeast, Thailand

This research focused on happiness perspectives of the migrant labour households in the Northeast, Thailand. The study relied on the qualitative methodology. The in-depth interview was conducted with key informants: village headman, senior persons, local officers and twelve heads of the international migrant households who had variation of migration patterns, selected by snowball techniques in one village within the O-lo District, Chaiyaphum Province. Data collection was done during April to May, 2017. The results were descriptive content analysis technique. The results indicated that most of the migrant labour households were farmers, grew rice and sugarcane and produced handicraft. Male labourers were the main group of the international migrants. The migrant labour households had only one labourer working abroad, with 2-month to10-year period of migration. The migration method that the labourers used in many destinations were through companies, brokers, the Department of Employment, or themselves. The migrant labour households defined happiness as good relationship within households, financial security, ability to manage debt and tension, household members being in good health, good relationship with others households, and safe and convenient life. The method of finding jobs abroad was related to working security of migrant labourers and happiness of the migrant labour households.

Capital utilization for livelihoods among rural fishing migrant households in the origin area

This research paper aims to analyze the capital utilized for livelihoods among the fishing migrant households in the origin area. A qualitative methodological approach, specifically a phenomenological approach was applied in the study, with in-depth interview and participatory observation employed as research tools. Twenty fishing migrant households, located in Bah sub-district, Surin province were selected as the target of the study; the data collection period was during January to June 2017. The research results explored the variety of capital that the fishing migrant households utilized for their livelihoods. The households created their livelihood strategies based on the capital they possessed. The five categories of capital that were identified as resources for creating livelihood strategies included 1) financial capital, which the households used to make life choices in the form of savings and land accumulation, 2) human capital, which was in the form of knowledge and experience applied in their careers in order to sustain the household life. 3) Social capital, which was used to solve household problems, for instance, tracking household members who were missing during fishing work, or participating in community activity, and 4) natural capital and physical capital, which were used as a mechanism in striving to make a living, for instance, collecting wild food items, or using natural materials to construct a house.

Economic and Social Effects of Rice Cultivation Practices Operation (Case Study: Rice Cultivator Villages in Rasht County)

Economic and Social Effects of Rice Cultivation Practices Operation (Case Study: Rice Cultivator Villages in Rasht County)

Access to childhood immunisation services and its determinants among recent and settled migrants in Delhi, India

ObjectivesChildhood immunisation is one of the important public health interventions, and poor migrants are vulnerable to forego these services. The objective of the study is to understand the access of childhood immunisation services to the socio-economically disadvantaged migrants and the determinants of full immunisation uptake up to the age of 1 year. MethodsIn a cross-sectional survey, 458 migrant households with a child aged up to 2 years were identified. Data on sociodemographics, migration history, receipt of various vaccines and maternal healthcare services were collected through interviewer-administered pretested questionnaires. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the determinants of full immunisation status. ResultsChildhood immunisation coverage rates were low as only 31% of recent-migrant children and 53% of settled-migrant children were fully immunised against seven vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) by 12 months of age. Lack of awareness of the immunisation schedule and location of health facilities, mobility, illness of the child, fear of vaccines and side-effects were the main reasons for incomplete or no immunisation. Mother's educational attainment, TV viewership, hospital birth and receipt of information on childhood immunisation from the health workers during postnatal visits increased chances of getting the child fully immunised against seven VPDs by 1 year of age. ConclusionThe migrants, particularly the recent migrants, are at the risk of foregoing immunisation services because of livelihood insecurity, mobility and non-familiarity of services in the new urban environment. There is a need to deliver services with a focus on recent migrants. Investing in education and socio-economic development and providing secured livelihoods and equitable services are important to improve and sustain access to healthcare services in the long run.

Land accessibility constraints of migrants in rural border settlements of Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract The study examined land accessibility constraints among migrants in rural border settlements of Ogun State, Nigeria. It specifically examined dimensions, extent of importance of the constraints and their joint interactive influence on land accessibility. Data were collected through questionnaires on migrant household heads. A multi-stage sampling technique was used for the selection of 492 respondents for the study. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics (t-test, relative important index (RII) and correlation statistics). The study revealed that the majority of the sampled migrants were within an active and productive population (31-60 years). Also, the larger percentage of the respondents were male (64.8%), married (70%), farmers (67.2%) with no formal education (51.3%). Most of the migrants have stayed above 6 years (79.8%) in the study area. This is an indication that migrants would have detailed experience about their land accessibility constraints. Findings showed that the high cost of land was the major constraint to land accessibility and non-availability of land (scarcity) was the least constraint. The study further revealed that the high cost of land, inability to transfer land, difficulty in land transaction and insecure tenure jointly influenced migrants' access to land in the study area. The study therefore recommended the need for an efficient land administration and governance at local government level in order to accommodate the attendant needs of rural migrants in the study area.

Role of Social Relationship in Predicting Health in China

There is increasing acknowledgement of social relationship as an important determinant of health. However, most evidence comes from developed countries, and the question of whether social relationship can predict health in developing countries remains poorly understood. This paper empirically examined how social relationships influence health in China. Data was collected from the Chinese Household Income Project, contained around 5000 migrant households, 8000 rural households and 5000 urban households. Self-reported general health and psychological health which was assessed by General Health Questionnaire. Social relationship was positively associated with health and psychological health, although the indices varied in strength. Social support, social connectedness and trust operated differently in predicting health in the three populations. The findings supported that social relationship influences health through both a stress-buffering process (helping people to cope with stress) and a main-effect process (promoting positive psychological states or healthy behaviors irrespective of stress). Among all the measures, neighborhood relationship satisfaction as one variable to capture social connectedness and generalized trust showed a stable and sizable effect in predicting health across the three populations, suggesting that neighborhood ties and generalized trust are important supportive resources for Chinese.

Migration and child health in Moldova and Georgia

There is scarce empirical evidence on the relation between migration and child health in Moldova and Georgia—two post-Soviet countries with large out-migration flows in the region. This study uses nationally representative data collected in 2011–2012 in Moldova (N = 1601) and Georgia (N = 1193) to investigate how children’s health associates with five transnational characteristics: migrant and return-migrant household types, parental migration and parental divorce, maternal and/or paternal migration and caregiver’s identity, the duration of migration, and remittances. Findings show that, regardless of the transnational family setting, children of migrants have overall positive or no differing health compared to children in non-migrant households. However, significant gender differences are found in both countries. More often than not, Moldovan and Georgian girls are more at risk of having poorer health when living transnationally. These results add nuance to a field of research that has mainly emphasized negative outcomes for children in transnational care.

Migration, debt and resource backwash: how sustainable is Bangladesh-Gulf circular migration?

This paper investigates international labour migration financing processes and related resource backwash – the flow of resources away from the migrant household which continue sometime after the initial migration event. Using customised survey data from four villages in Comilla and Chandpur districts, major migrant source regions in Southern Bangladesh, this paper assesses different dimensions of what is effectively a debt-financed migration strategy or resource backwash that accompany this process. The findings suggest that although migration has become an essential livelihood strategy for many households in rural Bangladesh, households deplete significant resources in terms of land and other precautionary assets in order to gain access to migration opportunities in the Gulf and emerging Asian countries. This paper shows that debt is a critical component of the migration system in Bangladesh, and the findings further suggest that although households adopt a migration strategy to counterbalance income uncertainty, the migration system itself creates extreme precarity, as households become riddled with migration related debt. Tragically it often takes the entire migration episode to service the debt. This argument has profound implications for the debate about migration’s role in supporting sustainable development.

The linkages between international migration, remittances and household welfare in Nigeria

Despite the increase in international remittance flows to Nigeria, there is dearth of studies on the linkages between international migration, remittances and household welfare in the country. This paper investigated the linkages between international migration, remittances and household welfare in Nigeria by examining household consumer and durable assets as welfare indicators as against the use of income and recurrent expenditure as indicators of the impact of migration and remittance on households. Data was from the 2009 World Bank Migration survey and were analyzed by descriptive statistics, asset index technique, and quintile estimation, ordinary least square and probit regressions. More of the migrants were single, males, students, had primary education, and had a mean age of 30 years prior to migration. The main determinants of receipt of remittance by households were age of the household head, region of residence, place of residence, and employment status of head of household. On aggregate levels, the proportion of remittance-receiving households in the fourth welfare quintile (13.88%) was more than non-remittance-receiving households (11.47%), while the proportion of non-migrant households in the fourth quintile (8.01%) was greater than the migrant households (.00%). The results also showed that having an international migrant and receiving of remittances significantly increases household welfare in Nigeria. Other variables that significantly affected household welfare in the area were age of the head of household, household size, region of residence, education and rural/urban place of residence.

Comparative Capability of Migrant and Non-Migrant Households: Evidence from Rural Bangladesh

This research aims to ascertain the level of capabilities attainment by the rural households of Bangladesh through temporary international migration. Multilevel Propensity Score Matching (PSM) based on logistic regression is used to construct the ‘treatment’ group of migrant households and ‘control’ group of non-migrant households. Various observed characteristics of 5219 households from the cross-sectional Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS) 2011-12 (Ahmed, 2013) is used to perform the matching procedures, and it matched 490 households of which 178 households for the ‘treatment’ and other 312 households for the ‘control’ group with similar observed characteristics like the ‘treatment’ group. Between these two groups, various outcome variables are compared by mean difference in case of continuous variables and relative proportion for categorical variables. Evidence from the matched sample indicates that migrant households have a higher level of food & non-food consumptions, better housing, higher education expenditure for the children, higher health expenditure, better access to the communication & social acceptance and higher participation of women in household decision-making compare to non-migrant households. In summary, they do possess extended capabilities and functionings i.e. ‘well-being’ and ‘social relation’. However, migrant households are also exposed to higher level of total outstanding loan, one-third of which taken exclusively for migration.

Son Preference and Human Capital Investment Among China's Rural-Urban Migrant Households

We use several datasets to study whether son preference prevails in the human capital investment among Chinese rural-urban migrant households. We find that son preference exists among the rural migrants' households and that it caused lower probabilities relative to that of their boy counterparts that school age girls will migrate with their parents - a difference that is absent for children of preschool age. We also find that (1) boys are more likely to migrate following the reduction in the number of rural primary schools, (2) migrant households with multiple children tend to take their sons to migrate more than they take their daughters, and (3) the fact that parents of boy students spend more on their children's education can be largely explained by the extra costs of schooling for migrant households. Finally, we show that the parents of rural children have higher expectations for boys than they do for girls. Our results suggest that son preference is detrimental to the human capital investment in girls in contemporary China when institutional arrangements result in high costs of schooling for migrants.

What Stayers Do? Capital Endowments and On-Farm Transitions in Rural China

While much research on China has focused on rural to urban migration and transitions of rural households away from agriculture, little is known about the changes within the rural agricultural sector. Yet, the agricultural sector continues to account for a large share of employment. We study the determinants of transitions from subsistence farming into either formal agricultural employment or agricultural self-employment. We pay particular attention to the role of capital endowments. We find that financial capital plays a relatively limited role, compared to natural, human, social and political capital.

Gender mainstreaming of the impacts of 2012 flood-induced migration on household livelihoods in Nigeria

This study examined the impact of the 2012 flood disasters on the livelihoods of migrant male-headed households (MHH) and female-headed households (FHH) in five rural local government areas (LGAs) of South Eastern Nigeria. These LGAs were selected because they are situated on the bank of rivers, are vulnerable to floods, and are among the most badly devastated areas during the 2012 floods. Data were obtained using mixed methods comprising questionnaire surveys and key informant interviews. From each LGA, 60 households totalling 300 households were sampled. Descriptive statistics, asset index technique, and logistic regression were used for data analysis. The aggregate index for the MHHs decreased from 0.4600 before, to 0.1000 after the floods, and from 0.5068 before, to 0.0108 after the floods for the FHHs. Age, occupation, income and education were the most significant predictors of livelihood security for the MHHs while income was the major predictor of livelihood security for the FHHs.

Human migration to the forest frontier: Implications for land use change and conservation management

Human migration is often considered an important driver of land use change and a threat to protected area integrity, but the reasons for in‐migration, the effectiveness of conservation restrictions at stemming migration, and the extent to which migrants disproportionately contribute to land use change has been poorly studied, especially at fine spatial scales. Using a case study in eastern Madagascar (603 household surveys, mapping agricultural land for a subset of 167 households, and 49 focus group discussions and key informant interviews), we explore the patterns and drivers of migration within the lifetime of those currently alive. We investigate how this influences forest conversion on the border of established protected areas and sites without a history of conservation restrictions. We show that in‐migration is driven, especially in sites with high migration, by access to land. There is a much higher proportion of migrant households at sites without a long history of conservation restrictions than around long‐established protected areas, and migrants tend to be more educated and live closer to the forest edge than non‐migrants. Our evidence supports the engulfment model (an active forest frontier later becoming a protected area); there is no evidence that protected areas have attracted migrants. Where there is a perceived open forest frontier, people move to the forest but these migrants are no more likely than local people to clear land (i.e., migrants are not “exceptional resource degraders”). In some parts of the tropics, out‐migration from rural areas is resulting in forest regrowth; such a forest transition is unlikely to occur in Madagascar for some time. Those seeking to manage protected areas at the forest frontier will therefore need to prevent further colonisation; supporting tenure security for existing residents is likely to be an important step.

Parental Migration Decisions and Child Health Outcomes: Evidence from China

This study uses migrant household survey data from 2008 and 2009 to examine how parental migration decisions are associated with the nutritional status of children in rural and urban China. Results from instrumental variables regressions show a substantial adverse effect of children's exposure to parental migration on height-for-age Z-scores of left-behind children relative to children who migrate with their parents. Additional results from a standard Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition, a quantile decomposition, and a counterfactual distribution analysis all confirm that children who are left behind in rural villages – usually because of the oppressive hukou system – have poorer nutritional status than children who migrate with their parents, and the gaps are biggest at lower portions of the distribution.

Bangladeshi and Inter-state Migrants: Differential Adaptation and Acceptance by the Locals in West Bengal, India

Naturalization of foreign nationals following the legal procedure is extremely difficult in India as it has complex constitutional prohibitions. Current study is based on a primary survey conducted on 653 Bengali speaking Hindu households migrated from Bangladesh mostly after 1980 and a control group of 130 non-Bengali-speaking households of internal migrants. India has experienced two phases of refugee flow coming from current country, Bangladesh, (1) in 1947, after India experienced partition of the country and acquired Independence and (2) in 1971, when East Pakistan was separated from west in order to create Bangladesh. The selected study time-period carefully avoided the political refugees and paid attention to study the slow infiltration. The study revealed that both the groups have equal access in entitlement and amenities provided by India. All the migrants from Bangladesh are undocumented migrants. Sympathy of the Bengalis of West Bengal allowed the dislocated Hindus from Bangladesh to settle by protecting them from deportation. Local Bengalis are socio-culturally more nearer to the Bangladeshis than any non-Bengali speaking internal migrants. This study based on interview of the households, informants’ interview and observations revealed that older generations’ heartfelt sympathy has politically crafted.

Social and economic differentials among households of urban migrants: evidence from Kalutara District, Sri Lanka

Migration to urban areas is a common phenomenon in Sri Lanka since more than three decades. Urban population is gradually increased mainly due to various reasons: socio-economic issues, natural disasters, political and ethnic issues, cultural requirements and improvement in transportation and communication, and migration to urban areas from rural and urban areas. As a result of the migration towards urban areas, socio-economic differences between formal and informal sector households have increased. Therefore, the aim of the study is to explore and estimate the socio-economic differences of urban migrants who are engaged in the formal and informal sector economic activities at the destination. Data was obtained quantitatively from a sample survey by using a face-to-face interview technique, covering 400 migrant households from three urban areas in Kalutara District and qualitative information was gathered using in-depth interview method. The factors related to social and economic differentials of migrant households were analysed by employing descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analyses. Findings of this study revealed that more than half of migrants belong to the reproductive age group. Three fourths of the household heads among migrants are below secondary level education and parents’ aspiration towards the children’s education is quite low, especially in the informal sector. Most of the urban migrants’ employments are at risk because more than two thirds of migrant household heads are engaged in informal economic activities and more than half of households have no economic security of their urban life. According to the bivariate comparison, formal sector employed households differ significantly from informal sector employed households in terms of respondent’s age, resident years at destination, monthly household income, monthly household expenses and Household Assets Index. Furthermore, these differences are enhanced by the multivariate discriminant analysis. Moreover, the qualitative findings discovered that several community and environmental factors such as lack of sanitary facilities and low educational attainment, less awareness and encouragement of employment opportunities have resulted in increasing the negative economic influences within these urban communities. It is suggested that the future employment programs and awareness programs should directly focus on empowering, especially, informal employees and new policies should be introduced to reduce the migration towards urban areas and its negative influences on the destination community.

Voices from the harvest: The role of language, identity, and life experience in the education of young children of migrant farmworkers

ABSTRACTThis study is an ethnographic case study that focuses on three family members from Mexican migrant farmworker households (a father, a grandmother, and mother), their discussions around the topic of educating their children, and their engagement in the seasonal early childcare programs that serve farmworker children. This study takes a sociocultural perspective to examine parental lessons in the home, views of institutionalized education, and the role of beliefs, identity, and life experience that contribute to the early years of a child’s education. This study address gaps in the research related to migrant farmworker families with young children in early childhood education programs.

Why do migrant households consume so little?

Exploring data from the migrant and urban household surveys of the Chinese Household Income Project, this paper dissects the underlying causes of the depressing effect of the hukou system on migrant household consumption to two channels. On one hand, migrants' disentitlement to local urban hukou creates financial insecurity through barriers to employment, social welfare, medical insurance, etc., thereby encouraging precautionary saving. On the other hand, it promotes temporary migration, allows divergence in tastes and values from local urban residents to persist, and incentivizes migrant households to save their transitory income. Factors reflecting these two channels, such as medical and pension insurances, the duration of migration, and local homeownership, are specifically modeled, and they are found to contribute to the discrepancies in consumption between migrant and local urban households, among other factors. In addition, the marginal propensity to consume exhibits heterogeneity across migrant households; it is higher with a longer duration of migration, local homeownership, and self-employment. The lack of these attributes further reinforces the reluctance of migrant households to consume.

Interbasin water transfers and the size of regions: An economic geography example

Abstract A two-region, spatial economic model is developed to explore the implications of interregional water transfers on household migration and the intraregional distribution of land between urban and agricultural use when there are agglomeration economies in urban production. A particular example is considered where an arid region lacks water resources but has differing levels of amenities and agricultural productivity relative to a water rich region. The conditions for the stability of both the dispersed and concentrated equilibria are found. Numerical simulations provide a graphical example of the set of stable equilibria in the parameter space. Finally, the model is calibrated using data on household consumption and agricultural production patterns in the US.