CLIMIG – A New Interdisciplinary Framework for Studying the Relation between Climate Change and Migration

Project Partners: Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS), University of Gothenburg, University of Oslo, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Organisation of Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa, Ethiopia

Funder: Swedish Research Council

Duration: 2022 – 2028

Project Description:

The project aims to establish a bold interdisciplinary research environment comprising the natural and social sciences to examine how climate change affects migration processes in three of the world’s most populated mountain areas: the Ethiopian highlands, the Andes, and the Himalaya. This will be done by using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods ranging from in-depth ethnographic fieldwork to non-linear climate modelling methods. The project will generate solid scientific knowledge on a crucial but less understood aspect of the relation between climate change and migration, i.e., how different drivers interact in complex constellations, and, in specific contexts, what makes certain drivers more decisive. For this purpose, a novel analytical framework will be constructed, and tested.

The specific objectives of the project are listed below:

1. To account for climate change as both a context for and a driver of migration within cutting edge theories of migration.
2. To rethink the relation between different drivers of climate migration to better account for empirically observed human mobility patterns.
3. To integrate complex biophysical and social political data together in innovative ways by designing an analytical framework that tests particular constellations of drivers, including quantification of their relative importance.

The following questions will guide the research:

1. What forms of migration exist in rural Ethiopia, Peru/Bolivia and Nepal and how have these changed during the last 30 years?
2. How does climate change affect the migration dynamics, especially people’s propensity to migrate?
3. How does climate change intersect with other migration drivers to lead to migration?
4. How can in-depth local level social political data best inform the development of fine-grained regional climate models?

Project team at SIAS: Dil Khatri, Gyanu Maskey and Sanjaya Khatri

International Team: Andrea Nightingale, Anders Burman, Andréas Litsegård, Karsten Paerregaard, Deliang Chen, Julia Curio, Deki Choden, Guillermo Salas and Truphena Mukuna

Further Details available at: https://www.gu.se/en/research/climig-a-new-interdisciplinary-framework-for-studying-the-relation-between-climate-change-and-migration