Remittances from internal migration and poverty in Botswana

This study seeks to address the question of the existence of a relationship between remittances from internal la-bour migrants and poverty. Data was obtained from a stratified random sample survey of internal migrants and poverty in Botswana in 2004. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the migrants. A total of 1160 migrant households were enumerated. The lived poverty index method is used to estimate the level of pov-erty. It takes the social aspect of development into consideration, thereby reducing the limitations of the eco-nomic measurement of poverty. Logistic regression analysis is used to examine the remittance-poverty relation-ship. Though female-headed households are transitorily poorer than their male counterparts, there is no signifi-cant gender difference among the extremely poor. The results do not show conclusively that migrant remittances have moderating effect on poverty in the country. Policy implications are addressed