Working Paper #2022-039
Climate change and migration: Reviewing the role of access to agricultural adaptation measures
This study examines the moderating role of access to agricultural
adaptation measures in how climate change is affecting human migration
in the middle- and low-income countries. The literature on the
association between climate change, agricultural production, and
migration has seen a dramatic expansion in the past decade and
highlighted the complexity of the process. Yet, a crucial link that is
missing in the discussions is the interlinkage between migration
responses and access to in-situ agricultural adaptation measures. To
address this gap, I build this study on an emerging approach that treats
adaptation to climate change as an additional component of sustainable
economic development. I systematically review 81 quantitative and
qualitative studies on the nexus of climate change, migration, and
agriculture in the middle- and low-income countries and investigate the
migration responses of agricultural households in conjunction with
access to agricultural adaptation measures. I find a significant overlap
between the social class of farmers, their capabilities to adapt in
situ, and their migration decisions. The migration responses vary across
agricultural households based on access to in-situ adaptation measures.
Additionally, this interaction is heavily moderated by other local
contextual factors- such as easy access to credit, participation in
social networks, ethnic and social fractionalization, presence of
conflicts, and social structures. Based on the findings, I propose a
conceptual framework that could aid in deconstructing the migration
responses of agricultural households in less-developed countries.
Furthermore, I highlight critical policy gaps in building
climate-resilient rural economies and suggest future research agendas
with regard to climate change, migration, and agricultural adaptation
measures.
- Keywords
-
- Climate change
- Human mobility
- Agriculture
- Adaptation
- Economic development
- Systematic review
- JEL codes
-
- O13
- O15
- Q01
- Q15
- R2
Cite this as
APA 7th ed.Mukherjee, M. (2022). Climate change and migration: Reviewing the role of access to agricultural adaptation measures (UNU-MERIT Working Paper No. 2022-039). UNU-MERIT. https://unu-merit.nl/publications/working-papers/abstract/?id=9460