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Understanding Migration Choices: The UNCCD as a Mechanism for Developing Coping Strategies

UNCCD Secretariat BonnII Symposium on Desertification and MigrationsAlmería, Spain25-27 October 2006

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Pressure (as a function of population density)Degraded area (% of subtype)

---- Sensitivity (as 1-median to aridity index)

www.unccd.int Almeria 2006Population growth and GDP

Population growth

GDP

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Population growth

Net Primary Productivity

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Desertification and MigrationA typology of migrations

• Temporary migration : unemployment or low wages in departurezones, lack of labour force in reception zones

• Population displacement : 25 millions of ecological refugeeswithin the world + political refugees

• Circular Migration : livestock transhumance• Labour migration : rural depopulation, environmental degradation• Permanent migration : population and economic pressures• Migration for studies• Informal migration• The classical type of migrant is no longer a single young man :

50% of migrants are women!

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Immigration Statistics for Spain in 2005

Positive migration balance of 652.300 in 2005 according to Eurostat;This record represents 38,5% of the total increasing rate (1.691.500) in the25 EU countries in 2005During 2001-2005 period, the immigrant number in Spain has increased by2.977.300.

Origin of clandestine immigrants in SpainIn January 2005 (Spanish National Institute of Statistics):

Moroccans: 511.294Ecuadorians: 497.799Rumanians: 317.366Colombians: 271.239Argentineans: 152.975

Bolivians: 97.947Peruvians: 85.029

Total of 1.6 million clandestine immigrants

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Migration to Northern Countries

Migration costs Migration benefits Reception place Departure place Reception

place Departure place

1 – Crossing costs 2– Human costs (mortality) 3 – Conflicts with authorities 4 – Integration costs

1 – Loss of human capital 2 – Loss of labour force 3 - Environmental costs

1 – Cheaper labour force 2 – Jobs local people refuse

1 – Remittances 2 – Social capital spatially extended 3 – Human capital

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Protection and StatusConcept of ‘environmental refugees’Definition by El-Hinnawi (1985):

“those people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental disruption (natural and/or triggered by people) that jeopardized their existence and/or seriously affected the quality of their life.”

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Migrations within Africa• Represent the majority of African migrants • The dynamism of African migrations :

– The migratory frequency : is 2.5 times higher in West Africa than in Europe (and isincreasing)

– Number of people out of their native country : 4-7 millions Malian in Burkina Faso– Multiplication of small and short distances flows and of refugee displacements– Old places of immigration : Ivory Cost, Sénégal, Nigeria, Libya, South Africa

• Economic security : from a diversification in situ to a spatial diversification• Trend of government policies : more restrictions to migrations• Main types : rural depopulation and « fronts pionniers »

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Migration to African cities: rural depopulationMigration costs Migration benefits

Reception place Departure place Reception place Departure place 1 – Loss of fertile lands 2 – Health costs (water pollution) 3 – Increase of water needs, environment degradation (oasis) 4 – Increase of poverty and insecurity 5 – Settlement costs

1 – Loss of human capital 2 – Loss of labour force 3 – Environment costs

1 – More Labour force 2 – Exchanges with rural areas

1 – Less pressure on environment 2 – Less conflicts 3 – Remittances 4 – Social capital Spatially extended

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Rural producers’ answers to events - drought and land degradation

1 – breeding and cultural adjustments2 – change of dietary pattern3 – food of «famine» ( wild fonio,…)4 – food borrowing from

family/neighbours/friends5 – prospect for agricultural work6 – temporary migration of labour7 – «contre saison » agriculture in

emigration8 – selling of small cattle9 – food or money borrowing out of

family/neighbours/friends10 – temporary migration11 – selling of goods (land, …)12 – definitive migration

Flexibility

Income diversification Emigration and remittances

Nonfarm wagesLivestock products

Subsistence production

Agricultural diversificationCrop diversification and

livestockHuman capital investment

Subsistence production

Crop subsistenceAgricultural wage labour

Seasonal migration

LAND

Choice set

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Migration to other rural African places

Migration costs Migration benefits Reception place Departure place Reception

place Departure place

1 – Environmental pressure 2 – Settlement costs 3 – Integration costs

1 – Loss of labour force 2 –Environment costs

1 – More labour force 2 – More knowledge and innovations

1 – Less pressure on environment 2 – Less conflicts 3 –Social capital spatially extended

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Immigration treated through a human development view point.

Focus on increasing income at the local level for all stakeholders.

Poverty reduction targeted at reducing land degradation.

Better governance and decentralised cooperation and south to south cooperation.

Approach of the UNCCD Framework and Process

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Conclusions

Desertification reduces the availability of agricultural land

Competition over scarce land resources can lead to migration

Desertification - an important trigger or accelerating factor

Combating desertification confidence-building/coping mechanism.

Cooperation brings diverse political, social and ethnic groups together

UNCCD and the action programmes provide a powerful tool

Participatory land management requires more inputs

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