Environmental Change and Migration Aspirations: Evidence from Bangladesh


Loading...

Date

2022-11-11

Publication Type

Working Paper

ETH Bibliography

yes

Citations

Altmetric

Data

Abstract

The argument that environmental change is an important driving force of migration has experienced a strong revival in the climate change context. We examine whether and how different environmental stressors aspire people to move. The analysis relies on newly collected, cross-sectional survey data of 1594 households residing in 36 villages along the 250 kilometers of the Jamuna River in Bangladesh – an area affected primarily by floods and riverbank erosion. The results show that long-term environmental events, i.e., riverbank erosion, increase aspirations for internal, permanent migration, while short-term environmental events, i.e., floods, do not affect migration aspirations. These results suggest that depending on the type of environmental change, people might prefer migrating rather than staying put and thus, they entail important policy implications regarding the effects of climate change on future internal migration flows.

Publication status

published

Editor

Book title

Journal / series

Volume

Pages / Article No.

Publisher

Center for Open Science

Event

Edition / version

v1

Methods

Software

Geographic location

Date collected

Date created

Subject

Climate change; Flood; Riverbank erosion; Environmental perceptions; Migration aspirations; Survey; Bangladesh

Organisational unit

03446 - Bernauer, Thomas / Bernauer, Thomas check_circle

Notes

Funding

Related publications and datasets