Blind spots of traditional poverty measurement: the case of migrants
Blind spots of traditional poverty measurement: the case of migrants

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine blind-spots of poverty measurement with application to the study of migrant poverty. These blind-spots stem mostly from the heterogeneity of migrant population and the difficulty of capturing this heterogeneity in unidimensional monetary measures of economic well-being such as income (or consumption). In this context, the paper demonstrates the utility of noncash monetary variables in accounting for dimensions of material well-being which otherwise would have remained undetected. The microdata of the 2009 Cyprus Family Expenditure Survey and the idiosyncratic case of foreign domestic workers are used to illustrate the importance of the points made above, as well as to put forth potential solutions.

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