Capitalising Human Mobility for Poverty Alleviation and Inclusive Development in Myanmar (CHIME)

Description: 

"Over the past decade, Myanmar has experienced a marked increase in migration, coinciding with a period of rapid economic growth.1 Internal and international migrants already represent 25 per cent of Myanmar’s total population. These migrants are primarily low-skilled and from poor rural households seeking to improve the long-term prospects for themselves and their families. Their migration is driven by interconnected structural and social factors, including rural poverty, lack of viable employment opportunities, earning differences between origin and destination, aspirations for modern work and/ or a modern lifestyle, the desire to break away from chronic indebtedness, and environmental changes and conflict. While migration is a crucial part of development, its ability to reduce poverty at the household level is contingent upon the effective management of the multiple risks and hardships faced by migrant households. Over the long term, the benefits of migration can offset hardships and downward slides into poverty by increasing the earnings of migrants and opening up new opportunities to them and their families. However, there is a need for policymaking to better align with and support the longterm aspirations of migrants and their families. The “Capitalising Human Mobility for Poverty Alleviation and Inclusive Development for Myanmar” (CHIME) study aims to address the knowledge gap on labour migration and its relationship with poverty and development in four areas in Myanmar: Ayeyarwardy Region, Mandalay Region, Rakhine State and Shan State. CHIME employed a mixed-methods design, including a quantitative household survey and qualitative in-depth interviews, collected in two rounds in 2017. The quantitative samples were intended to be representative of rural households in each of the four identified, and the findings are regionally representative for Ayeyarwady and Mandalay regions. The study cannot and does claim to be representative of Rakhine and Shan States due to various limitations to accessing some of the villages.2 The CHIME project was implemented by a consortium composed of the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population, the University of Sussex, Metta Development Foundation, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Financial support was provided by the Livelihoods and Food Security Fund (LIFT). The findings of the study are summarized in the sections that follow..."

Creator/author: 

Priya Deshingkar, Julie Litchfield, Wen-Ching Ting

Source/publisher: 

International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Date of Publication: 

2019-01-01

Date of entry: 

2019-06-21

Grouping: 

  • Individual Documents

Category: 

Countries: 

Myanmar

Language: 

English

Local URL: 

Format: 

pdf

Size: 

4.39 MB

Resource Type: 

text