Kerstin Schmidt-Verkerk

Migration and climate change: towards an integrated assessment of sensitivity

This paper sets out a new approach to understanding the relationship between migration and climate change. Based on the understanding that migration is a significant, growing, but also complex phenomenon, this approach seeks to address the sensitivity of existing migration drivers in specific contexts to climate change. In contrast to existing approaches which have sought to generate global-level estimates of the numbers of ‘climate migrants’, this integrated assessment approach seeks instead to understand how and why existing flows from and to specific locations may change in the future, and provide a practical tool for climate adaptation planning. Examples of the application of this approach are provided for Ghana and Bangladesh.

Buscando la vida - How do perceptions of increasingly dry weather affect migratory behaviour in Zacatecas, Mexico?

‘Buscando la vida’ – looking for life – is a phrase that many people in the Mexican state of Zacatecas refer to when they talk about their motives for migration. Life in the rural communities of Zacatecas is to a large extent determined by farming and migration. Due to a lack of industries and a decline in the mining activities in Zacatecas, agriculture and remittances are the major sources of income for many people. As Delgado Wise et al.