Labour migration and food security in rural Mozambique: Do agricultural investment, asset building and local employment matter?

J Int Dev. 2023 Nov;35(8):2332-2350. doi: 10.1002/jid.3781. Epub 2023 Mar 28.

Abstract

Connections between labour migration and food security of left-behind households are still poorly understood. Using data from two waves of a longitudinal survey conducted among ever-married women in rural Mozambique, we employ multi-level ordered logit and negative binomial regressions to examine over time three possible pathways linking men's migration and its economic success to food security of left-behind households-agricultural investment, household material assets and women's local gainful employment. Our analyses find a significant positive association between migration's success, proxied by remittances, and food security and show that this association is largely mediated by household's possession of material assets.

Keywords: Mozambique; agricultural investment; asset building; food security; labour migration; local employment; rural Africa.