Migrant destinations in an era of environmental change

Which destinations will be most impacted by environmental migration? Most research on environmental migration examines the drivers of mobility, identifying the locations that are most affected by environmental change. By contrast, little attention is paid to where migrants might move to in response to these changes. The paper argues that much can be learned from applying established knowledge from the migration research literature to the specifics of environmental mobility. Migration destinations of environmental movers are examined in two different contexts. First, research is reported relating to the migration destinations of populations affected by drought and food insecurity. Second, Europe is studied as a destination region for migration flows. The paper concludes that, in place of estimates of the number of environmental migrants, a more productive focus of research would be to achieve deeper understanding of the destinations selected by current environmental migrants, and to appreciate why immobility is as great a problem as movement to new locations for those concerned with climate adaptation planning.

► Migration theory can advance understanding of the destinations of current environmental mobility.
► There is little evidence to support claims of mass environmental migration to the global north.
► Forced or voluntary immobility in environmentally vulnerable areas may be a serious problem.
► Many environmental moves will be by individuals and not whole households.
► In Europe most environmentally driven mobility will be from within the European Union.