This book has argued that despite the obvious connections between migration and household food security, little attention, and even scarcer direct evidence, has been marshalled towards the linkages between them in development policy research and practice. The preceding seven chapters of the book have attempted to highlight these connections, and primary data from the case-study district of Siwan in western Bihar provided empirical evidence on how the relationship between the two plays out. The findings reveal that food insecurity is a critical driver of rural households’ migration decisions, and the act of migration, in turn, influences the households’ food security outcomes. In other words, there is a two-way relationship between migration and household food security. However, these connections are not straightforward – far from it. They manifest at various levels, as the primary research findings presented in the three empirical chapters (Chapters 5, 6 and 7) establish. These include: (a) the interactions of the wider institutional and policy environment with rural households’ food security status and migration decisions; (b) the effects of migrants’ remittances on household food security and inter-household differences among migrant and non-migrant households in income, assets and food security; and (c) within-household dynamics of migration and food security.

The primary research findings from the rural hinterlands of Bihar provide important insights of national and international significance that need attention. This final chapter brings together the main insights of this research, identifies the key findings that may have wider policy significance and comments on the direction of future research. As a way of introduction, the discussion that follows first revisits the main research premise and rationale and summarises the narratives told in the previous chapters.

RETURNING TO THE BEGINNING

This book began by summarising the key question it pursues: what role does internal migration play as a livelihood strategy in influencing food security outcomes among rural households in India? The broad rationale for this work is provided by the disconnect that currently exists in the academic and policy discussions on migration and food security. Migration has become a key component of livelihood strategies of an increasing number of rural households across the developing world. During recent years, academics and prominent global policy-making bodies have increasingly argued for the need to encourage migration to promote sustainable human-development outcomes.