International Migration Research Centre
 

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

2013

Department

Balsillie School of International Affairs

Abstract

  • The disjuncture between food security, migration and urbanization must be overcome. It is an institutional as well as a thematic disconnect on a global scale.
  • Food security is primarily about access to food, not agricultural production.
  • In an increasingly urban world, the locus of food and nutrition security will no longer be rural areas and the global perspective needs to shift appropriately.
  • Hunger is a political as well as economic problem and requires state intervention.
  • Increasing demand for food needs to be met in ecologically sustainable ways while ensuring that the poor have adequate access to food.
  • Migration should be considered a normal process rather than a response to livelihood failure in rural areas.
  • More research is needed on the impact of migrants’ remittances on food security.
  • Urbanization is about much more than the rural poor moving to cities in search of work. In fact, urbanization and migration have the potential to reduce poverty and inequality.
  • Policies that address urban food security need to appreciate the complex relationship between household food security and a range of variables such as income, gender and household size.
  • Climate change is causing increased migration, especially to cities, and bringing about a complex shift in food distribution patterns that includes staple foods being sent to remote rural areas.

Share

COinS