Rural attachment and income inequality in rural communities of Nigeria under the threat of cattle raiding

While migration has long been recognised as a strategy of poverty reduction and income enhancement, the inequality that could arise among rural migrants due to their perceived differences in rural attachment has not been systematically addressed. Using a new index of rural attachment constructed with various components of human and non-human factors, this study reveals that emigrated low-income households were more attached to rural areas than richer households. Moreover, violent conflicts, particularly cattle rustling, exert a strong negative impact on household income and the impact cuts across all households with different levels of income. Thus, it can be argued that conflict in resource-scarce communities could exacerbate the pre-existing rural-urban income inequalities.