COVID-19, Food Insecurity, and Migration

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 ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of Nutrition 2020-11, Vol.150 (11), p.2855-2858
Main Authors: Smith, Michael D, Wesselbaum, Dennis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Commerce
Coronaviruses
COVID
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
COVID-19 - virology
Current distribution
Economic conditions
Emigration and Immigration - legislation & jurisprudence
Epidemics
Food
Food Insecurity - economics
Food security
Health Policy
Humans
immigration policy
inequality
International migration
Issues and Opinions
Migration
Pandemics
Prevalence
Rural Population
Rural urban migration
SARS-CoV-2
Socioeconomic Factors
Urban Population
Viral diseases
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0022-3166
1541-6100
DOI:10.1093/jn/nxaa270