Record Details

Covid-19 insecurities and migration aspirations

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Covid-19 insecurities and migration aspirations
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/EJZN50
 
Creator Miranda Simon
Cassilde Schwartz
David Hudson
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Using an original survey, this paper examines how pandemic-driven insecurities have affected aspirations to migrate internationally among youth in The Gambia. We find that individuals perceive wide inequalities between their government’s performance and the speed of Covid-19 recovery abroad. However, superior recovery abroad does not have significant effects on aspirations to migrate. Individual and local sources of security are more important: Individuals who were able to maintain their jobs throughout the pandemic are less likely to aspire to move abroad. The insecurity of Covid-19 job loss may be compensated by confidence in one’s government’s ability to tackle the pandemic. This suggests that, in the context of an event that has upended people’s lives, would-be migrants who managed to maintain a source of stability may seek comfort in familiar contexts; even if they appear worse than alternatives abroad.
 
Subject Social Sciences
International Migration
Development
Africa
 
Contributor Journal, International Interactions