The role of environmental perceptions in migration decision-making: evidence from both migrants and non-migrants in five developing countries
Abstract
Research has demonstrated that, in a variety of settings, environmental factors influence migration. Yet much of the existing work examines objective indicators of environmental conditions as opposed to the environmental perceptions of potential migrants. This paper examines migration decision-making and individual perceptions of different types of environmental change (sudden vs. gradual environmental events) with a focus on five developing countries: Vietnam, Cambodia, Uganda, Nicaragua, and Peru. The survey data include both migrants and non-migrants, with the results suggesting that individua...
Source: Population and Environment - June 13, 2016 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Climate, migration, and the local food security context: introducing Terra Populus
Abstract
Studies investigating the connection between environmental factors and migration are difficult to execute because they require the integration of microdata and spatial information. In this article, we introduce the novel, publically available data extraction system Terra Populus (TerraPop), which was designed to facilitate population–environment studies. We showcase the use of TerraPop by exploring variations in the climate–migration association in Burkina Faso and Senegal based on differences in the local food security context. Food security was approximated using anthropometric indicators o...
Source: Population and Environment - June 10, 2016 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Disasters, migrations, and the unintended consequences of urbanization: What ’s the harm in getting out of harm’s way?
This article integrates researc h on disasters and climate change-induced migration with emerging perspectives from environmental psychology and the psychology of natural disasters to consider the potential costs of particular migration scenarios. We apply this analysis to the case of Shishmaref, Alaska, a rural Iñupiat community on the northwest coast of Alaska facing habitual flooding disasters linked to climate change. Findings from Shishmaref illustrate the cultural vitality of subsistence landscapes and the potential health risks of compromised human–ecological relationships due to migration and/or displacement. R...
Source: Population and Environment - May 31, 2016 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Emplaced social vulnerability to technological disasters: Southeast Louisiana and the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Abstract
We examine the relationship between emplaced social vulnerability and impacts on mental health following the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Through joint analysis of data from Community Oil Spill Survey and US Census Bureau products, a place-based index of social vulnerability is developed to examine how emplaced characteristics engender unique susceptibility to the disaster, with specific attention on the influence of natural resource employment and community sentiment. Results show negative mental health impacts to be more pronounced at baseline compared to later time points and that shifts in...
Source: Population and Environment - May 18, 2016 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Household migration as a livelihood adaptation in response to a natural disaster: Nicaragua and Hurricane Mitch
This study uses data drawn from the Nicaragua Living Standards and Measurement Study Survey to examine international livelihood migrations from Nicaragua in the years surrounding the rapid-onset Hurricane Mitch event of 1998. The likelihood of an international livelihood migration occurring between the years 1996 and 2001 is modeled utilizing discrete-time event history analysis. While findings indicate no influence of Hurricane Mitch on likelihood of livelihood migration, the Mitch event is associated with increased migrant selectivity according to past household migration experience for migrations to Costa Rica, suggesti...
Source: Population and Environment - April 1, 2016 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Climate shocks and the timing of migration from Mexico
Abstract
Although evidence is increasing that climate shocks influence human migration, it is unclear exactly when people migrate after a climate shock. A climate shock might be followed by an immediate migration response. Alternatively, migration, as an adaptive strategy of last resort, might be delayed and employed only after available in situ (in-place) adaptive strategies are exhausted. In this paper, we explore the temporally lagged association between a climate shock and future migration. Using multilevel event-history models, we analyze the risk of Mexico-US migration over a seven-year period after...
Source: Population and Environment - March 5, 2016 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Marine protected areas and children ’s dietary diversity in the Philippines
< h3 class= " a-plus-plus " > Abstract < /h3 > < p class= " a-plus-plus " > Fish living around the coral reefs in the Philippines provide livelihoods for more than a million local fishers and are an important source of protein for coastal communities. However, this rich resource is at risk from myriad threats, which consequently threaten human livelihoods, nutrition, and health. In this paper, we examine the degree to which marine protected areas (MPAs), which aim to conserve marine biodiversity, are associated with improved nutritional outcomes in children under age 5. This analysis, which uses data from the 2008 Philippi...
Source: Population and Environment - February 29, 2016 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Structure and agency in development-induced forced migration: the case of Brazil ’s Belo Monte Dam
< h3 class= " a-plus-plus " > Abstract < /h3 > < p class= " a-plus-plus " > This paper examines how structure and agency interact to shape forced migration outcomes. Specifically, I ask how structural factors such as compensation policies as well as social, financial, and human capital may either foster or constrain migration aspirations and capabilities. I use longitudinal, semi-structured interview data to study forced migration among farmers displaced by the Belo Monte Dam in the Brazilian Amazon. Results from baseline interviews indicate that nearly all community members aspired to purchase rural land in the region and...
Source: Population and Environment - February 29, 2016 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
At the margins: agriculture, subsidies and the shifting fate of North America ’s native grassland
We examined patterns of shifting cropland cultivation in the US Great Plains from the dust bowl to the beginning of the twenty-first century, by comparing land-cover data from 400 sample sites across the region from the 1930s, 1950s, 1970s, 1990s and 2000s. The small area land-cover data were nested within 50 target counties across the region. To understand the use of marginal land for cultivation since the Great Depression, we argue, requires consideration of the long term dynamics of demography, technology and policy. We draw on these historical dynamics, and their interactions with programs aimed at reducing environment...
Source: Population and Environment - February 29, 2016 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Land use as a mediating factor of fertility in the Amazon
This study examines the fertility–environment association using empirical data from Ecuadorian Amazon between 1980 and 1999. Fertility dramatically declined during this period, and our empirical models suggest that households’ relationship to land partially explains this decline. Controlling for known fertility determinants such as age and education, women in households lacking land titles experienced a 27 % higher birth rate than did women in households with land titles. This suggests insecure land tenure was associated with higher fertility. Furthermore, each additional hectare of new pasture was associated with a 1...
Source: Population and Environment - January 23, 2016 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Climate shocks and migration: an agent-based modeling approach
Abstract
This is a study of migration responses to climate shocks. We construct an agent-based model that incorporates dynamic linkages between demographic behaviors, such as migration, marriage, and births, and agriculture and land use, which depend on rainfall patterns. The rules and parameterization of our model are empirically derived from qualitative and quantitative analyses of a well-studied demographic field site, Nang Rong district, northeast Thailand. With this model, we simulate patterns of migration under four weather regimes in a rice economy: (1) a reference, “normal” scenario; (2) 7 ye...
Source: Population and Environment - January 23, 2016 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Newcomers and oldtimers: Do classification methods matter in the study of amenity migration impacts in rural America?
Abstract
Rural, high-amenity areas in the USA continue to attract significant numbers of migrants. A common approach to investigating the potential consequences of rural in-migration is to contrast the characteristics, attitudes, and/or actions of migrants and non-migrants (or “newcomers” and “oldtimers”). However, no consensus exists on the distinctions (or the lack thereof) between these two groups in the existing literature, in part because previous research used a variety of methods to classify residence status. Drawing on household survey data from nine communities in north-central Colorado, ...
Source: Population and Environment - January 11, 2016 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
By all measures: an examination of the relationship between segregation and health risk from air pollution
Abstract
A great deal of evidence suggests that African-Americans in more racially segregated communities are at a higher risk for a variety of health problems. Scholars have argued that these health inequalities might be explained by racial differences in exposure to air toxins. However, there are a number of ways to measure segregation, each representing different pathways of exposure. There has yet to be a systematic evaluation of how exposure to air toxins varies by these different measures, making it difficult to begin to theorize about the causal story linking segregation, pollution and health. This...
Source: Population and Environment - January 4, 2016 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
GIS without GPS: new opportunities in technology and survey research to link people and place
Abstract
This paper presents innovative ways to relate survey data to GIS maps, thereby making the connection of people and place more accessible for the research community. Based on data from rural areas in the Brazilian Amazon, we describe a successful effort to sample households while linking farm-level data to property boundaries, these boundaries generated from subjects’ interpretations of satellite images on a computer screen. The sampling framework is based on legislation requiring farmers to report to a government agency in a four-week period, and the farmers’ input allows for a more e...
Source: Population and Environment - November 19, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Population recovery in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina: exploring the potential role of stage migration in migration systems
Abstract
In this research brief, we explore how places affected by natural disasters recover their populations through indirect, or “stage,” migration. Specifically, we consider the idea that post-disaster impediments (e.g., housing and property damage) in disaster-affected areas spawn migration flows toward and, over time, to disaster-affected areas through intermediary destinations. Taking as our case Orleans Parish over a 5-year period after Hurricane Katrina, we show that stage migration accounted for up to about one-fourth of population recovery. We close by discussing the implications, limitatio...
Source: Population and Environment - October 27, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
