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Migration and Its Two-Way Relationship with Rural Change: Lessons from China, Ethiopia, Moldova, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco and Thailand

Author(s): Fraser Sugden et al.

Year of Publication: 2023

The AGRUMIG project was a comparative analysis of experiences from Europe, Asia and Africa, and explored the impact of migration on the trajectory of agricultural change in rural areas. This brief reviews the findings of our seven-country study. The research focused on nineteen remittance-dependent communities in seven countries: China, Ethiopia, Moldova, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco and Thailand.  The overarching finding was that migration is rarely the main driver of agriculture or rural change and, in some contexts, migration is the product of this change. Other factors are the growing agrarian stresses in the context of economic liberalization, rural monetization and climate change. In most regions we studied, migration facilitates the reproduction of rural livelihoods, offering an escape valve at a time of increasing livelihood uncertainty, but it is just one factor driving change.

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