COVID-19, Food Insecurity, and Migration

Details

• Journal Title:
  The Journal of Nutrition
• Personal Author:
  Smith, Michael D ; Wesselbaum, Dennis
• Description:
  In this policy piece, we investigate the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)–food-insecurity migration channel and develop a policy agenda. The interaction between COVID-19 and the drop in economic activity will lead to increased food insecurity within and across countries. Higher food insecurity may act as a multiplier for the epidemic due to its negative health effects and increased migration. Research has shown that food insecurity affects within-country and cross-border migration. Besides the mean prevalence rate, the distribution of food insecurity affects the migration decision. The impacts of COVID-19 are particularly strong for people in the lower tail of the food-insecurity distribution. In the current context, the effect of food insecurity therefore could be increased migration, including both rural–urban migration and international migration. Importantly, the crisis might lead to a structural break in migration patterns. People might avoid heavily affected COVID-19 destination countries (e.g., United States, Italy, or Spain) and move to other countries. Due to the persistent nature of migration flows, this could have long-lasting effects.
• Keywords:
  COVID-19 (Disease) Food Security Food Security COVID Food Security Immigration Policy Inequality Migration
• Source:
  The Journal of Nutrition, 150(11), 2855-2858
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxaa270
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Rights Information:
  Other
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:fa3d0de650fad5ea261dcfb0dfd6dc076c3b316708c98f29924fc815043129e5
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/29549/noaa_29549_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 138.09 KB ]