Men's Migration and Women's Health in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Migration's Economic Returns and Spousal Communication

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the association between men's labor migration and changes in their non-migrating wives’ self-rated health (SRH) over time using longitudinal data from rural Mozambique. In addition to comparing wives of non-migrants and wives of migrants, we account for variation in the economic impact of migration and in migrants’ phone communication with their spouses. We find that migrants’ wives are significantly less likely to report low SRH, compared to non-migrants’ wives, net of other factors. However, this net advantage is concentrated among migrants’ wives who receive frequent remittances and who report that their households’ conditions have improved thanks to husband's migration. We also find that women who engage in frequent phone communication with their migrant husbands have decreased likelihoods of low SRH, compared to migrants’ wives who do not communicate with their husbands during their migration and to women married to non-migrants, regardless of other characteristics. We interpret these findings within the context of multifaceted gendered implications of men's migration for left-behind women's health and wellbeing.