This paper investigates internal migration and vulnerability to poverty in
Tanzania. It examines whether migration reduced household vulnerability
to poverty for a panel of households from the Kagera region over the period
2004-2010. The dataset allows the analysis of two samples of households:
those with the same head in the periods considered and an enlarged network
of split-off households. The potential endogeneity of migration is controlled
by both matching methods and an exogenous variation. A severe drought
in 2008-09 affected the areas of the country with a bimodal rain season, but
not those with a unimodal rain season. It is thus possible to study the heterogeneity
of migrants with respect to an unanticipated shock in the region
of destination. The evidence shows that migration reduced vulnerability to
basic needs and to food consumption poverty for families which experienced
migration to unimodal regions. The results are consistent with migration as
a risk management strategy by households.