| Summary: | This thesis research is based on data obtained from the Nepal Ethno Survey of Family, Migration and Development conducted in 396 farming households in the Eastern part of the Chitwan, Nepal. In a three essay thesis format, I explore the factors affecting migration decision and migration destination choices. I then establish a link between remittance and food security status of the surveyed households.
In the first essay, I use a probit model to identify household decisions to send or not to send migrants, and identify factors affecting the decision process. I include individual, household and social network characteristics in the regression model. Results suggest that migrants who are males, young and non-household head, households which have higher number of adult males, lower number of adult females, lower number of males with secondary education, higher number of females with secondary education and lower land holding size positively affect the decision to migrate.
In the second essay, I use a multinomial logit model to first identify the pertinent variables related to choice among those that do not to migrate, migrate internally and migrate outside of the country. I then follow up this analysis with another multinomial logit model in which I identify variables that are critical for migrants to choose among four major international migration destinations (India, Malaysia, Gulf Countries and other countries). Results indicate that along with individual and family characteristics, the migration networks are crucial factor for the selection of migration destinations.
The third essay explores the impact of remittances on food security status at household, adult and children levels. Results from an ordered probit regression model indicates that higher education level, higher income from agriculture source and adoption of hybrid rice/maize have a positive effect on food security while age of household head and number of conservation technologies adopted have a negative impact on food security. Also, results indicate that remittance-receiving households are more food secured than those that did not receive remittance. Findings suggest that Nepal should address migration issues as resulting remittance has multiple impacts that reverberate through the economy.
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