Wg Ii — Loss of Livelihoods and Increased Migration

After initial presentations on a European Commission funded research project on global environmental migration¹ in 24 countries as well as some introduction into scenario development and alternative futures, participants discussed some of the issues related to migration.

Migration is often not perceived to be caused by environmental reasons, not even by the migrants themselves. Indeed academically, the causal linkage is not fully established yet and should not be overstated. What is needed in this respect is more research on very specific case studies in the Mediterranean region, but also in sub Saharan Africa, since the southern Mediterranean countries are increasingly becoming transit countries.

Outward migration is in fact a security issue, in the sense that one looses a lot of local knowledge of the land, and this loss is irreversible. It puts pressures on legal migration channels. However, it should also be noted that migration can have a very positive impact on destination and origin countries. This issue is the subject of a conference to be held in Rabat on 12–13 December 2007.