Abstract
Moving away from considering climate change as a direct or indirect push factor of migration, this chapter focuses on the unequal access of people affected by climate-related stressors to existing migration networks. Underprivileged members of society often lack access to these networks and are therefore unable to migrate internationally because they cannot reduce the costs and risks of potential migration projects to an acceptable level. Climate change might aggravate this situation by having an adverse impact on people’s socio-economic condition. This in turn increases the pressure to adapt in situ or migrate and adds to existing social inequalities. Based on empirical data from the Mexican states of Zacatecas and Veracruz, this chapter describes how access to migration networks depends not only on economic resources but also on the cultural context, individual preferences, and personal attributes, such as age and gender . Thus, people who might not be able to migrate now will be even less able to do so under more severe socio-economic conditions brought about by climate change, as they do not have access to existing migrant networks. On the other hand, some people never sought access to migration networks because they never wanted to leave their communities, and this view doesn’t change in the context of climate change stressors.
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Notes
- 1.
Refer to Schmidt-Verkerk (2012) for a detailed account of the methodological approach and a complete description of the socio-economic and environmental conditions in the research settings.
- 2.
While internal migration also plays an important role for many people in Zacatecas and Veracruz, a detailed analysis of the impacts of internal migration on social inequalities goes beyond the scope of this paper and will therefore not be discussed here.
- 3.
Empirical research in the context of the Ph.D. project included fieldwork in a village in the northern part of Zacatecas. As international migration only plays a minor role in this village, it has not been included in the analysis presented in this chapter.
- 4.
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Schmidt, K. (2016). Social Inequality and International Migration Related to Climate Stressors: The Case of Mexico. In: McLeman, R., Schade, J., Faist, T. (eds) Environmental Migration and Social Inequality. Advances in Global Change Research, vol 61. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25796-9_8
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