Do Changes in Weather Patterns and the Environment Lead to Migration in the MENA Region?

Adoho, Franck and Wodon, Quentin (2014): Do Changes in Weather Patterns and the Environment Lead to Migration in the MENA Region?

Abstract

Migration is one of several strategies used by households to respond to changes in climate and environmental conditions as well as extreme weather events. Yet while there is a burgeoning literature on climate change and migration and other adaptation strategies worldwide, the evidence available for the MENA region remains limited, in part because of a lack of survey and other data. This chapter is based on new data collected in 2011 in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and Yemen in two climate affected areas per country. The chapter provides an analysis of the impact of changes in weather patterns and the environment (as perceived by households) on migration, both by members residing in the households (temporary migration) and former household members who have left (permanent migration). The results suggest that perceptions of negative changes in weather patterns and the environment are indeed associated with a higher likelihood of migrating temporarily or permanently.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Climate change, Migration, Middle East and North Africa
• Subjects: R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R2 - Household Analysis > R23 - Regional Migration ; Regional Labor Markets ; Population ; Neighborhood Characteristics

References

Barrios, S., L. Bertinelli, and E. Strobl (2006). Climatic change and rural–urban migration: The case of sub-Saharan Africa, Journal of Urban Economics 60(3): 357–371.

Burger, N., A. Grant, S. Kups, Y. Rana, and Q. Wodon, 2014a, Focus Countries, in Q. Wodon, A. Liverani, G. Joseph, and N. Bougnoux, editors, Climate Change and Migration: Evidence from the Middle East and North Africa, World Bank Study, Washington, DC.

Burger, N., B. Ghosh-Dastidar, A. Grant, T. Ruder, O. Tchakeva, and Q. Wodon, 2014b, Data Collection, in Q. Wodon, A. Liverani, G. Joseph, and N. Bougnoux, editors, Climate Change and Migration: Evidence from the Middle East and North Africa, World Bank Study, Washington, DC.

Christian Aid (2007). Human Tide: The Real Migration Crisis – A Christian Aid Report. Christian Aid. London.

Elasha, Balgis Osman, 2010. “Mapping of Climate Change Threats and Human Development Impacts in the Arab Region,” mimeo, New York: United Nations Development Program.

Findley, Sally E., 1994. “Does Drought Increase Migration? A Study of Migration from Rural Mali During the 1983–1985 Drought,” International Migration Review, 28(3): 539–553.

Foresight, 2011. Migration and Global Environmental Change, London: The Government Office for Science.

Gupta, A. K., D. M. Anderson, D. N. Pandey (2006). Adaptation and human migration, and evidence of agriculture coincident with changes in the Indian summer monsoon during the Holocene, Current Science 90(8): 1082-1090.

Haug, R. (2002). Forced migration, processes of return and livelihood construction among Pastoralists in Northern Sudan, Disasters 26(1): 70-84.

Jakobeit, C., and C. Methmann (2007). Klimaflüchtlinge – Die verleugnete Katastrophe, Greenpeace, Hamburg.

Paul, Bimal Kanti, 2005. “Evidence Against Disaster-Induced Migration: the 2004 Tornado in North-Central Bangladesh,” Disasters, 29(4): 370--385.

Stern, N. (2006). The Economics of Climate Change – The Stern Review, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Wodon, Q,, N. Burger, A. Grant, and A. Liverani, 2014, Climate change, migration, and adaptation in the MENA Region, in Q. Wodon, A. Liverani, G. Joseph, and N. Bougnoux, editors, Climate Change and Migration: Evidence from the Middle East and North Africa, World Bank Study, Washington, DC.