The relationship between climate change and internal migration in the Americas

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between climate change and internal migration in the Americas.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review type of research synthesize the state of knowledge; it was searched through the Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, among other databases, for articles that focused on climate migration, gender, water stress and models for predicting movement.

Findings

Decreased water availability and increased prevalence to water-related disasters causes internal migration. Also, male out migration is quite prevalent in South American nations with women being left to take care of the families.

Research limitations/implications

There is a need for further primary research to analyse what actions the Americas are taking to carve out a large policy-making space for themselves in climate change and internal migration.

Originality/value

The 32 papers explored in the discussion section present a novel insight into climate change, water usage, gender and internal migration. The papers also elucidate that cultural and ideological conflicts are bound to occur as the communities move with the receiving society finding it hard to accommodate the needs of the climate migrants.

Citation

Silva Rodríguez de San Miguel, J.A., Martínez Díaz, E. and Monroy Becerril, D.M. (2021), "The relationship between climate change and internal migration in the Americas", Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 32 No. 4, pp. 822-839. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEQ-01-2021-0020