SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This paper investigates internal migration and vulnerability to poverty in Tanzania. It examines whether migration reduced household vulnerability to poverty for a panel of households from the Kagera region over the period 2004-2010. The dataset allows the analysis of two samples of households: those with the same head in the periods considered and an enlarged network of split-off households. The potential endogeneity of migration is controlled by both matching methods and an exogenous variation. A severe drought in 2008-09 affected the areas of the country with a bimodal rain season, but not those with a unimodal rain season. It is thus possible to study the heterogeneity of migrants with respect to an unanticipated shock in the region of destination. The evidence shows that migration reduced vulnerability to basic needs and to food consumption poverty for families which experienced migration to unimodal regions. The results are consistent with migration as a risk management strategy by households.