A Double-Edged Sword: Migration & Food Insecurity in Nicaragua

Household food insecurity remains high in low-income countries. This has important implications for household members’ physical and mental health. Past research suggests that migration may be a key household economic survival strategy in the face of poverty, with potentially important implications for food security for those left behind. However, the migration process involves critical changes in social and economic resources in the origin household, which may have multiple consequences for food insecurity. The loss of a household member due to migration may be associated with a reduction in mouths to feed, improving food security, or in the loss of a food provider, increasing household vulnerability to food insecurity. The economic and social costs of migration, however, may offset by remittances, which may provide an extra source of income to smooth consumption and reduce food insecurity in origin households receiving those remittances. In this study, we interrogate the two sides of migration – out-migration of a household member and the receipt of remittance – for origin household food (in)security in Nicaragua. Using a representative sample of households with young children in both rural and urban areas of Leon, (N=444), we employ multinominal regression models and find both positive and negative associations between these two aspects of migration and household food insecurity. Using a regionally- and locally-validated household food insecurity scale, we find households experiencing out-migration have significantly higher risk of food insecurity than those that did not lose a household member to migration. The receipt of remittances in the past 6 months, on the other hand, is significantly associated with reduced risk of household food insecurity. Further, our stratified models indicate that these associations may be largely driven by origin households in urban areas, where this “double-edged sword” of migration is most evident.