Impact of Labour Migration on Rural Livelihoods

This book describes the impact of perpetual labour migration on rural livelihoods in the rural Zimbabwe. Case of Ward Eight in Tsholotsho, Matabeleland North [Zimbabwe] was considered for the study. Migration, in Tsholotsho, has, for a long time, been inherent to most able-bodied people who, at most, leave for neighboring South Africa and Botswana to seek employment and greater opportunities. Labour intensive semiarid agriculture in the area suffers labour shortage as a result of migration. The load is left for the ‘weak’ and vulnerable family members. In the area, remittances sent back home by migrants are weaker than labour gaps created by their exodus, hence increasing vulnerability of those left home. Migration may not be improving general life in the area; rather it appears to be romanticizing evidently long-existed poverty.