The impact of migration on the welfare of migrant sending households in selected rural areas of Zimbabwe

Incomes are volatile in poor communities and sometimes households live on less than a dollar per day. To cushion themselves from volatile income, poor families resort to borrowing from friends and job hunting. Establishing a business enterprise is also among alternatives adopted by family members in trying to reduce financial vulnerability. However, the business enterprise option is impeded by lack of capital, thus household units end up considering migration as an indirect strategy to escape poverty. The New Economics of Labour Migration theory, recognizes family participation in migration decisions as a strategy for moving out of poverty, thus signaling potential welfare linkages between migrants and family members left behind. The current study investigates the impact of migration on welfare of migrant sending households in rural Zimbabwe using cross-sectional data. The study employs a Counterfactual approach and utilizes a two stage Heckman selection model to control for selection bias. Preliminary results indicate that on average, migration impacts household welfare positively but the welfare gains are not evenly distributed among households.