Environmental change and migration: A review of West African case studies

van der Land, Victoria, Romankiewicz, Clemens and van der Geest, Kees, "Environmental change and migration: A review of West African case studies" in Routledge Handbook of Environmental Displacement and Migration ed. McLeman, Robert and Gemenne, François (London and New York: Routledge, 2018), 163-177.

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  • Author van der Land, Victoria
    Romankiewicz, Clemens
    van der Geest, Kees
    Book Editor McLeman, Robert
    Gemenne, François
    Chapter Title Environmental change and migration: A review of West African case studies
    Book Title Routledge Handbook of Environmental Displacement and Migration
    Publication Date 2018
    Place of Publication London and New York
    Publisher Routledge
    Start page 163
    End page 177
    Language eng
    Abstract West Africa has been a prominent region for research on the linkages between environmental change and migration. To a large extent, this has been motivated by the great Sahel droughts of the 1970s and 1980s. Most studies start from the assumption that environmental factors, such as rising temperature, increasing rainfall variability, land degradation and periodical droughts, affect people’s livelihoods, particularly in rural areas. This chapter provides a review of case studies on the linkages between migration and environmental change in the region, with a focus on drylands. It illustrates that the concepts, methods and results applied differ considerably between the case studies and make it difficult to draw conclusions on the environment-migration nexus. This review shows that even from environmentally fragile areas, people have many different reasons to migrate, which often go beyond risk prevention and adaptation to environmental stress. Many studies find that environmental factors are often not the main driver of migration in the region; instead, individual characteristics, structural conditions, social determinants, better prospects or individual aspirations strongly influence migration decisions and patterns. Nevertheless, temporary migration is a well-established activity to diversify income and the financial support of the migrants is crucial for most households in rural areas. Permanent out-migration of entire households seems to be rare in the region.
    UNBIS Thesaurus WEST AFRICA
    DROUGHT
    Keyword Human mobility
    drylands
    Environmental change
    Copyright Holder Routledge
    Copyright Year 2018
    Copyright type All rights reserved
    ISBN 9781138194465
    9781315638843
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    Created: Tue, 17 Apr 2018, 21:10:42 JST by Aarti Basnyat on behalf of UNU EHS