Linking Food Security with Development, Inequality and South-South Migration

In this paper, we draw attention to the ignored linkages between food security, inequality, and development with respect to South-South migration. Building on core arguments reflecting on these ties and empirical studies from diverse sending and receiving contexts, we outline five distinctive ways in which these multidimensional relationships and interactions operate. The first aspect assesses how inequality of opportunities and outcomes affects food security to shape migration aspirations and movements. The second aspect discusses how food insecurity in a variety of conflict and crisis circumstances acts as the main determinant and precipitant of forced migration. The third aspect addresses migrant remittances and their contribution to the food security of sending and recipient households. A fourth aspect highlights the activities of migrants in the food systems of the receiving countries. The final aspect examines the food security circumstances of various categories of migrants and connects them with migrant precarities at the transit and destination sites. In a broad sense, our analysis identities existing research gaps on this topic and problematizes selected buoyant framings of the migration-development nexus.