The World Bank - Working for a world free of poverty
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This blog is hosted by Dilip Ratha, lead economist at the World Bank. Its goal is to leverage migration and remittances for development.
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Climate Change and Migration
It is very interesting how the relationship between climate change and migration "cuts both ways," as I am finding out looking at the climate-induced migration in the Middle East and North Africa. (By the way, while it is true that much has been said about climate change and migration globally, the question of what role climate plays in migration regionally and at finer scales of resolution still remains largely unanswered, and we simply do not have a good picture of the current scale at which climate determines migration in many places. As a result, it is extremely difficult to generate expected migration scenarios based on climate change projections.) The question of how migration affects climate change is fascinating and unfortunately under-explored. We know that forced migration in some cases directly results in rapid and severe environmental degradation, such as deforestation seen in and around refugee camps, and rural-urban migration results in increased urbanization, affecting most visibly the urban microclimate. However, beyond such readily noticeable phenomena (which themselves warrant a more systematic inquiry), there is a plethora of different ways in which migration affects climate change that would be most interesting to explore...