Migration and resilience of rural households' livelihoods in the face of changing political and economic contexts: The case of South Mozambique (1900?2010)

This article investigates how labour migrations of rural households from Leonzoane in Southern Mozambique have changed since the colonial period to a post-war (1992) and post-apartheid (1994) context and their links with livelihoods restructuring. It draws on a qualitative analysis of the features of labour migrations, through a sample of households on five generations. Results reveal the evolution of men's forms of mobility from longstanding circular and formal migrations to South Africa's mines, toward multi-sited, informal, and more flexible migrations into mining and other sectors. These renewed forms of mobility are a core element of households' livelihoods restructuring, as part of strategies to adapt the changing political-economic constraints of the broader globalising environment in terms of increasing informal and volatile labour conditions. The article concludes with a call for further analysis and integration of migration features in development policies.