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Household migration as a livelihood adaptation in response to a natural disaster: Nicaragua and Hurricane Mitch

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Abstract

This study uses data drawn from the Nicaragua Living Standards and Measurement Study Survey to examine international livelihood migrations from Nicaragua in the years surrounding the rapid-onset Hurricane Mitch event of 1998. The likelihood of an international livelihood migration occurring between the years 1996 and 2001 is modeled utilizing discrete-time event history analysis. While findings indicate no influence of Hurricane Mitch on likelihood of livelihood migration, the Mitch event is associated with increased migrant selectivity according to past household migration experience for migrations to Costa Rica, suggesting these migrations to be livelihood adaptations of those with high capability in the form of access to migrant social networks. In addition, the Mitch event is found to be associated with decreased likelihood of migration by small business owners. This finding is interpreted as reflecting business owning households choosing to forego sending migrants to instead have ‘all hands on deck’ to assist with business operations.

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Notes

  1. INEC documentation indicates the hurricane resulted in high levels of damage to infrastructure, buildings and crops in the western and northwestern regions of Nicaragua. A more specific description of the specific criteria according to which the INEC designated municipalities as “affected areas” is not supplied in documentation, an acknowledged limitation of the data utilized in this study.

  2. When limiting the data to the years following the disaster event (t > 1998), results are found to be substantively similar.

  3. Drawing predictive variables from 2001 implies not accounting for temporal variation in predictors, an acknowledged study limitation.

  4. In order to examine whether the community migration history interaction might exist in the absence of the household migrant social capital variable, stepwise regressions were performed. No statistical significance in the community migration history variable is observable.

  5. The consumption cutpoints by which households are assigned to consumption quintiles are determined at the national level by the INEC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Weber State University, 1299 Edvalson Street Dept 1208, Ogden, UT, 84408-1208, USA

    Peter Loebach

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Appendix A: business owning householdsa, by national quintiles of household consumption

Appendix A: business owning householdsa, by national quintiles of household consumption

Consumption quintile

Households featuring business ownership (%)

1

10.5

2

18.1

3

19.0

4

27.3

5

25.2

  1. aLimited to households residing in Hurricane Mitch impacted municipalities

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Loebach, P. Household migration as a livelihood adaptation in response to a natural disaster: Nicaragua and Hurricane Mitch. Popul Environ 38, 185–206 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-016-0256-9

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