Labor Migration and Social Networks Participation: Evidence from Southern Mozambique

Juan Gallego () and Mariapia Mendola

No 279, Development Working Papers from Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano

Abstract: There is a large literature pointing to community participation and social networks as salient components of household well-being in developing settings. Yet, there are few insights into whether people mobility affects incentive problems associated with social networks, or whether labor migration displaces social informal institutions in village economies at origin. This paper directly tests the role of international migration in shaping participation in groups and social networks by migrant sending households in village economies at origin. By using an original household survey from two southern regions in Mozambique, we find that households with successful migrants (i.e. those receiving either remittances or return migration) engage more in community based social networks. Our findings are robust to alternative definitions of social interaction and to endogeneity concerns suggesting that stable migration ties and higher income stability through remittances may decrease participation constraints and increase household commitment in cooperative arrangements in migrant-sending communities.

Keywords: International Migration; Social Capital; Networks; Group Participation; Mozambique (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O12 O15 O17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40
Date: 2009-11-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-dev, nep-mig and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Labor Migration and Social Networks Participation: Evidence from Southern Mozambique (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:csl:devewp:279

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