Global migration 1995-2020

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the bilateral relationship between the migration rate and impacts of environmental change, measured through slow-onset climate change and fast-onset natural disasters. For the period 1995-2020, 183 countries are analysed through two cross-sectional analyses which allows for both time-series and cross-country variation in immigrant inflows. Non-environmental drivers are controlled for by investigating the impact on migration rates of demographic, economic, political and social factors. The dyadic nature of the analysis allows for a close examination of patterns across pairs of countries by clearly distinguishing between ‘origin’ and ‘destination.’ Results show food- and water-related vulnerability and exposure to natural disasters are most important when compared to infrastructure-related vulnerability in determining environment-induced international migration flows. This research substantially improves our understanding of environment-induced migration by highlighting the difference in impact between environmental variables based on their slow- or fast-onset nature. It highlights that transnational mobility remains an adaptive mechanism primarily employed by more wealthy countries and signals the important role of internal migration within climate mobility research.