Research proves how droughts, shortage of water, floods or ecosystem deterioration cause migration in Morocco and Senegal.

The MIGRACLIMA project analyses how droughts, shortage of water, floods or ecosystem deterioration impact on living conditions. These conditions often lead to both inner and international displacements, but also to situations of forced immobility. For example, in many places, the shortage of water has caused the abandonment of agriculture and ranching, which encouraged some residents to move.

In other cases, acceding to water is so difficult that it has caused the sedentariness of settlements whose lifestyle was based on mobility, such as nomad groups. At the same time, the most vulnerable population groups have been forced into immobility in certain cases, after finding themselves even more poor and devoid of resources to fund a possible migration.

According to Lacomba and Cloquell, migration appears as a way of adapting, whereas sometimes the lack of resources limits the chance of displacing. Other geographic contexts, including research on Sahel and the Andes region, prove that climate change and human mobility are a global phenomenon, even though they adopt different shapes depending on the territory and its social, economic, and politic conditions.

Research also tackles gender inequalities and the role of public policies and international cooperation when facing these challenges. Research highlights the lack of specific legal protection for those people affected by climate mobility, which constitutes one of the main current international challenges. “Challenges arising out of the relation between climate change and human mobility underline the need for enhancing international cooperation and public policies against the growing effects of climate crisis,” researchers warn.

This research, together with other national and international studies, is included in the book: Cambio climático y migraciones. Su impacto e implicaciones para el desarrollo, edited by Professors Joan Lacomba (UV) and Alexis Lacomba (Universidad Católica de València), and published by Tirant lo Blanch. The research is also aimed at improving coherence among the cooperation for development, migration, and climate change policies, including a transdisciplinary perspective on gender.

The project featured María Jesús Berlanga, Isabel Royo, María José Barbé, and Isolda Perelló, researchers at the UV Department of Social Work and Social Services. Other researchers featured in the publication include Beatriz Felipe, Oriol Puig, Justo Corti, Aly Tandian, Oumoul Khairy Coulibaly, Jorge Enrique Forero, and Yolanda Alfaro.

The research group on Migration and Development processes (InMIDE) at the Universitat de València (UV), has published this book within the frame of the project I+D+i MIGRACLIMA (PID2021-122559NB-I00), funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation in the announcement of the 2021 Knowledge Generation programme.

Captions annexed:

• Oasis in Marruecos affected by shortage of water.
• Dry Baobab (Senegal).