When leaving is normal and staying is novel

Men’s labor migration and women’s employment in rural Mozambique

Bibliographic Data

ID13011024
AuthorsVictor Agadjanian (0000-0002-9639-1485, University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author), Sarah R Hayford (0000-0003-0000-7774, The Ohio State University), Byeongdon Oh (0000-0002-1808-9272, University of Kansas)
Year2019
Volume9
Issue3
Pages1011-1029
Publication date2019-09-09
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMigration Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2049-5838 • E-ISSN: 2049-5846
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/migration/mnz043
PMID34925827
OpenAlexW2980799000
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited38

Considerable cross-national research has examined the impact of international labor migration on livelihoods in sending households and communities. Although findings vary across contexts, the general underlying assumption of this research is that migration represents a novel income-generating alternative to local employment. While engaging with this assumption, we also argue that in many sending communities where labor migration has been going on for generations, it is the decision not to migrate and instead to pursue local livelihood opportunities that might constitute a true departure from the expected behavior. Importantly, both the decisions to migrate and not to migrate are part of a household strategy shaped by gendered negotiation and bargaining. Building on these propositions, we use rich survey data from rural Mozambique, a typical setting of long-established large-scale international male labor out-migration, to examine married women's gainful employment outside subsistence agriculture as it relates to their husbands' migration or local work. We find a somewhat lower likelihood of employment among migrants' wives, compared with nonmigrants' wives, and this pattern strengthens with increased duration of migration. However, we also find substantial differences among nonmigrants' wives: women married to locally employed men have themselves by far the highest probability of employment, while wives of nonemployed men are no different from migrants' wives, net of other factors. These findings are discussed in light of interconnected gendered complexities of both migration-related and local labor market constraints and choices

Agriculture · Demographic economics · Developing country · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Internal migration · Labour economics · Livelihood · Negotiation · Sociology · Subsistence agriculture · Wage · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare