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People on the Move in a Changing Climate pp 135–153Cite as

Migration and Environmental Change in North America (USA and Canada)

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Part of the book series: Global Migration Issues ((IOMS,volume 2))

Abstract

This chapter addresses the intersection of migration and environmental trends in North America in the context of global environmental change, including a historical review of past migrations related to environmental events as well as a description of regional climate change forecasts and current migrations trends, a brief review of past environmental migration in the region, and an overview of recent research on population mobility and climate change events. The general conclusion is that environmental factors may not be the primary driver of migration for the region as a whole, but that climate change events will likely have a role at the local level. Also, being an area of international immigration, impacts in sending areas could lead to changes in current patterns.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In fact, one of the ironies of wildfires is that it is precisely in-migration and development in sensitive ecosystems that puts householders at risk (Westerling et~al. 2006).

  2. 2.

    Migration systems include two or more places connected by flows and counterflows of people (Faist 2004, page 50). Moving beyond early push–pull models, this dynamic approach allows for the reciprocal effects, multiple causation, and rapid changes that characterize different and interconnected forms of population mobility at various temporal and spatial scales (Boyd 1989; Fawcett 1989; Kritz and Zlotnik 1992).

  3. 3.

    A note on sources: the Unites States’ 2010 Census did not include questions on the foreign-born population. After 2000 data on the foreign born are available only through the American Community Survey and the Current Population Survey.

  4. 4.

    Annual rate per 1,000 US population.

  5. 5.

    Persons recognized as refugees under the 1951 UN Convention/1967 Protocol, the 1969 OAU Convention, in accordance with the UNHCR Statute, persons granted a complementary form of protection and those granted temporary protection (UNHCR 2012:46).

  6. 6.

    Data on remittances is not available for Canada.

  7. 7.

    Even 5 years after Katrina, in 2010, New Orleans’ population was just 343,829, a 29.1 % decline from 2000 (US Census Bureau http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/22/2255000.html).

  8. 8.

    The displacement risk index (DRI) combines measures of socioeconomic vulnerability, physical vulnerability, community resilience, hurricane return periods, and probability of strikes. The authors defined displacement as “the uprooting of people from their homes resulting from a hurricane disaster for periods of time that exceed the typical temporary shelter timeframe of 3 months”. Raw scores where converted to “a standard normal percentile rank where a percentile of 100 denotes maximum hurricane-related displacement risk for a county” (Esnard et~al. 2011:834, 849).

  9. 9.

    “The B2 storyline and scenario family describes a world in which the emphasis is on local solutions to economic, social, and environmental sustainability. It is a world with continuously increasing global population at a rate lower than A2, intermediate levels of economic development, and less rapid and more diverse technological change than in the B1 and A1 storylines. While the scenario is also oriented toward environmental protection and social equity, it focuses on local and regional levels” (IPCC 2000).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIESIN, Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY, 10964, USA

    Susana B. Adamo & Alexander M. de Sherbinin

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  1. Susana B. Adamo
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Correspondence to Susana B. Adamo .

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  1. Institute of Geography, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Etienne Piguet

  2. Migration Research Division, International Organization for Migration, Geneva 19, Switzerland

    Frank Laczko

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Adamo, S.B., de Sherbinin, A.M. (2014). Migration and Environmental Change in North America (USA and Canada). In: Piguet, E., Laczko, F. (eds) People on the Move in a Changing Climate. Global Migration Issues, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6985-4_6

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