Heat Stress Increases Long-term Human Migration in Rural Pakistan.

ABSTRACT: Human migration attributable to climate events has recently received significant attention from the academic and policy communities (1-2). Quantitative evidence on the relationship between individual, permanent migration and natural disasters is limited (3-9). A 21-year longitudinal survey conducted in rural Pakistan (1991-2012) provides a unique opportunity to understand the relationship between weather and long-term migration. We link individual-level information from this survey to satellite-derived measures of climate variability and control for potential confounders using a multivariate approach. We find that flooding-a climate shock associated with large relief efforts-has modest to insignificant impacts on migration. Heat stress, however-which has attracted relatively little relief-

SUBMITTER: Mueller V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4132829 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature