Migrating for a Better Life?

Abstract

Despite increasing recognition of migration as a strategy for exiting poverty and achieving human wellbeing, to date the literature that applies human wellbeing analysis to the case of international migration remains sparse. Given increasing acceptance of the linkages, there appears to be a strong rationale for connecting human wellbeing analysis with migration and development debates. This chapter fuses human wellbeing analysis with literature from the migration and development arena, and provides an overview of key concepts and ideas from human wellbeing analysis suggesting how these fit with and potentially extend three bodies of literature — that on social remittances, that on the impacts of international migration on those ‘back home’, as well as that on the potential of migration as a development and wellbeing strategy for migrants in the destination country.