Effects of Migration on Household Welfare in the Oromia Region, Ethiopia

This research investigated the effect of migration on the well-being of households in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. The analytical approach used in this research was multinomial endogenous switching regression. A multistage stratified random sample technique was applied to gather data from 384 households. Secondary data were also collected from the previous four National Labour Force Surveys. Ethiopian rural-to-urban migration rose from 28.7% to 33.8% between 1984 and 2021, whereas rural-to-rural migration fell from 55.8% to 24.6%. Migration tends to rise with larger family sizes, women-led family and the age of the family head, while it tends to decline with larger land holdings, access to irrigation, tropical livestock units and higher levels of education. International migration significantly increases asset and food expenditure of households by 4,415 Birr and 1,520 Birr, respectively. Furthermore, the average treatment effect on treated for kilocalorie intake per capita of family with migrants is 323, which is statistically significant at the 1% level. The result is consistent with the prediction of the modern theory of migration. Enhancing rural households’ access to loans, land, irrigation, pre-migration training, public services and non-farm activities can optimise the advantages of rural out-migration.