When leaving is normal and staying is novel: Men’s labor migration and women’s employment in rural Mozambique

Abstract

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.

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

“…Although some studies have found a relationship between labour migration and local employment among household members in sending communities (Agadjanian, Hayford, & Oh, 2021;Posso, 2012), as our results suggest, local employment does not mediate the effect of labour migration on food security. Overall, the inclusion of household material assets, agricultural resources and investment and local employment effaced the statistical difference between households of most successful migrants and those of non-migrants in animal protein intake (Table 4, Model 5) but not in food security (Table 3, Model 5), pointing to tangible net benefits of highly successful migration that extend beyond the potential mediating factors considered in our analyses.…”

“…If non-migrating women in migrant-sending households are engaged in paid employment, it may also affect the amount of migrant remittances allocated for food acquisition. Successful labour migration resulting in a steady flow of remittances may discourage migrants' wives from engaging in gainful employment (Agadjanian, Hayford, & Oh, 2021), while women from households with rare and meagre migrant transfers may be pushed into such employment outside of subsistence agriculture to compensate for remittance scarcity. We therefore hypothesize that women's involvement in paid work will mediate the association between men's labour migration and food security (Hypothesis 4).…”

“…Regardless of destination, labour migration is typically a long‐term practice, with migrant men spending many years working away from home, while typically returning to their families for brief periods of time, usually during holidays. Likewise, men's local off‐farm employment, however limited, is usually an enduring commitment rather than an option that alternates intermittently with labour out‐migration (Agadjanian, Hayford, & Oh, 2021). And labour migration, and variations in its economic outcomes, have been shown to affect various aspects of sending households' well‐being, including mortality (Agadjanian, Hayford, & Jansen, 2021; Yabiku et al, 2012), sexual and reproductive health (Agadjanian et al, 2011) and children's schooling (Yabiku & Agadjanian, 2017).…”

Long-term Consequences of Men’s Migration for Women’s Well-being in a Rural African Setting

“…Importantly, labor migration in this context, as in other parts of southern Africa and beyond, while growing in scale, has also become increasingly less formal and more diverse in destinations, occupational allocations, and financial returns (Crush and Frayne 2010;De Vletter 2007). The growing diversity of male migration's characteristics and outcomes has shown important consequences for left-behind women's marital and family experiences and, consequently, for different aspects of their and their household members' lives, including health, food security, marital stability, employment, and mobility (Agadjanian, Arnaldo, and Cau 2011;Agadjanian and Hayford 2018;Agadjanian, Hayford, and Jansen 2021;Agadjanian, Hayford, and Oh 2021;Agadjanian, Yabiku, and Cau 2011;Cau and Agadjanian 2023;Chae, Hayford, and Agadjanian 2016;Yabiku, Agadjanian, and Cau 2012).…”

The COVID-19 Pandemic, Social Ties, and Psychosocial Well-Being of Middle-Aged Women in Rural Africa

“…Men’s labor migration, primarily to neighboring South Africa but also to Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, has long been a household risk diversification strategy ( De Vletter 2007 ). Local employment opportunities outside subsistence farming are typically limited to petty trade and small crafts ( Agadjanian, Hayford, and Oh 2021 ).…”