Migration, Labor Mobility and Household Poverty in Nigeria: A Gender Analysis

Mistura Rufai, Adebayo Ogunniyi, Kabir Kayode Salman, Motunrayo Oyeyemi and Mutiat Salawu
Additional contact information
Mistura Rufai: World Bank Group, Abuja P.O. Box 2826, Nigeria
Adebayo Ogunniyi: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Off Oro-Ago Crescent Garki II, Abuja 901101, Nigeria
Kabir Kayode Salman: University of Ibadan, Ibadan P.O. Box 22133, Nigeria
Motunrayo Oyeyemi: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Off Oro-Ago Crescent Garki II, Abuja 901101, Nigeria
Mutiat Salawu: Federal College of Animal Health and Production Technology, Ibadan P.O. Box 5029, Nigeria

Economies, 2019, vol. 7, issue 4, 1-24

Abstract: The increase in the geographical mobility of labour as a result of poverty, unemployment and unstable economic conditions, among other factors, especially among professionals, has been associated with a brain drain in Nigeria. Despite the high level of migration and subsequent remittances from migrants, a large proportion of Nigerians still live in poverty. The increased participation of women in migration in the country also brings to the fore the existence of gender-specific migration experiences and how this has in turn affected their households. Based on gender, this study assesses the extent of labour mobility, its determinants and how it influences remittance inflows and household poverty using the logit regression model Propensity Score Matching and Linear Regression with Endogenous Treatment Effect Approach. Results reveal that while more males travelled for employment purposes, more females travelled due to marriage arrangements. More of the migrants that were working after migration had worked before migration and had the highest average amount of remittance sent to households. The study shows that labour mobility increases the amount of remittance sent to households. However, the increase was higher among male migrants than female migrants. More than half of the migrants had poor households; meanwhile, labour mobility was found to reduce the extent of poverty. The study recommended that policies that improve the welfare of labour and reduce the brain drain, unemployment and closures of enterprises in the country should be put in place. Also, effective policies and interventions that promote the use of remittances to achieve maximum reductions in poverty should be pursued.

Keywords: labour movement; remittance; gender; welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E F I J O Q (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/7/4/101/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/7/4/101/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:7:y:2019:i:4:p:101-:d:273012

Access Statistics for this article

Economies is currently edited by Ms. Adore Zhou

More articles in Economies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().