Migration and Economic Mobility in Tanzania: Evidence from a Tracking Survey

Abstract

This study explores to what extent migration has contributed to improved living standards of individuals in Tanzania. Using a thirteen-year panel survey, we find that migration between 1991 and 2004 added 36 percentage points to consumption growth. Although moving out of agriculture resulted in much higher growth than staying in agriculture, growth was always greater in any sector if the individual physically moved. As to why more people do not move given the high returns to geographical mobility, analysis finds evidence consistent with models in which exit barriers set by home communities prevent the migration of some categories of people. © 2011 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Escaping Famine Through Seasonal Migration

“…In the IV specification, per capita food, non-food expenditures, and caloric intake among induced migrant households increase by 30% to 35% relative to non-migrant households. This is very similar to the 36% consumption gains from migration estimated by Beegle et al (2011) for Tanzania. Finally, none of the results discussed above are sensitive to changes in baseline control variables.…”

Land markets and migration trends in Tanzania: A qualitative‐quantitative analysis

“…This increase in land liquidity is found to explain almost 20% of the post-reform Europe-Asia migration. Particularly in developing countries, the gap in productivity between the agricultural and urban sectors, coupled with observed welfare gains for migrants, presents a puzzle: why don't rural people migrate at greater frequency (Beegle et al, 2011;Gollin, Lagakos, & Waugh, 2014)? The work of Chernina et al (2014) suggests that it may be a lack of land liquidity that serves to inhibit migration.…”

“…The region of Kagera, Tanzania is further characterized by extensive migration flows that have garnered considerable attention in the literature (Beegle et al, 2011;Kudo, 2015;Hirvonen & Lilleør, 2015;de Weerdt & Hirvonen, 2016;Hirvonen, 2016). 4 In a longitudinal study that tracked individuals from Kagera over ten years, Beegle et al (2011) find that roughly half of the sample moved from their home village during this interval. Among migrants, 38% moved to a nearby village and another 40% moved elsewhere within the region.…”

“…Second, this article spotlights the development of a rural (informal) land market as a potential policy pathway through which population mobility can be facilitated. As migration has also been found to improve economic outcomes across a range of settings (McKenzie, Stillman, & Gibson, 2009;Beegle et al, 2011;de Brauw et al, 2017), policies that facilitate mobility have direct implications for economic growth and poverty alleviation. Such policies can support the land market through improved access to market information and well-defined property rights.…”

Trajectories of agricultural change in southern Mali

“…Our study adds to the body of literature showing that out-migration can relieve land pressure and improve livelihoods by pulling rural labour out of agriculture (Beegle et al, 2010;de Brauw et al, 2014). Rural to urban migration however encompasses a diversity of realities and can be the expression of either unskilled rural labour being forced to find work outside agriculture or educated people lured into productive nonfarm jobs .…”