Eugenia Chernina (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow)

Previous research has shown that effects of natural shocks for household migration decision may go in different directions. This paper aims at exploring the impact of experiencing natural shocks (measured by self-reported shocks) on migration participation by members of Kyrgyz rural households. Employing panel dataset of Life in Kyrgyzstan Survey (2010-2013) we show that out of five studied shocks only droughts and floods negatively affect migration, while other shocks (cold winters, earthquakes and landslides) on average do not lead to any statistically significant change in migration participation. However, it turns out that available migration networks, household’s financial capacity and involvement in agriculture are the sources of differential impact. Exploring the means of migration funding, we find that both liquidity and borrowing constraints are important for the poorest households. It turns out that help from friends and relatives for financing migration, if it comes, is sourced to the rich households.

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