Livelihoods and poverty: The role of migration - A critical review of the migration literature

This review of the literature concludes that development studies have paid insufficient attention to labour migration, and makes a plea to integrate a nalyses of migration within those of agricultural and rural development. It emphasises that population mobility is much more common than is often assu med and that this has been so throughout human history. In fact, available material suggests that it is as likely that population mobility has decreas ed as that it has increased. A review of empirical studies shows that it ma y not be possible to generalise about the characteristics of migrants, or a bout the effects of migration on broader development, inequality or poverty . The review concludes that, given the importance of migration for the rura l livelihoods of many people, policies should be supportive of population m obility, and possibilities should be explored to enhance the positive effec ts of migration.