Abstract

Human migration may be an important link in the relationship between climate induced environmental stress and social unrest. Migrants driven by environmental factors may strain scarce resources in receiving areas and become a primary source of instability. However, since climate-induced migration is an important means of adaptation, it could be the case that maladaptation or the existence of barriers to migration may increase the risk of conflicts in areas of origins. The main channel would essentially be the increasing scarcity of resources that climate change induces and the absence of an important regulating valve of emigration.