Socio-cultural similarity with host population rather than ecological similarity predicts success and failure of human migrations.

ABSTRACT: Demographers argue that human migration patterns are shaped by people moving to better environments. More recently, however, evolutionary theorists have argued that people move to similar environments to which they are culturally adapted. While previous studies analysing which factors affect migration patterns have focused almost exclusively on successful migrations, here we take advantage of a natural experiment during World War II in which an entire population was forcibly displaced but were then allowed to return home to compare successful with unsuccessful migrations. We test two competing hypotheses: (1) individuals who relocate to environments that are superior to their place of origin will be more likely to remain-The Better Environment Hypothesis or (2) individuals who reloc

SUBMITTER: Lynch R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8767215 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature