Podcast: People on the Move (and Sometimes Not)

“Migration is often misperceived as the failure to adapt to a changing environment. It is, however, one of the main coping and survival mechanisms that is available to those affected by environmental degradation and climate change.” – Sylvia Lopez-Ekra, IOM Ghana Chief of Mission

How will climate change affect international migration? Dr. Angel Cruz and Dr. Nora Haenn look at climate change and migration from the standpoint of smallholder farmers in Mexico and, especially, El Salvador.

Check out part 1 of this podcast here (13 min). Part 2 of the podcast can be found here (15 min). Recorded as part of Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions initiative with the very excellent Dr. Angel Cruz, the larger list of publicly available talks associated with the course on climate change can be found here.

Working fewer than 25 acres of land and with earnings of five or six dollars a day, El Salvador’s farmers grow coffee, jalapeño chile peppers and other food we enjoy. They also grow food for their own families, often on marginal lands. Their precarious circumstances make smallholder farmers especially vulnerable when climate change alters farming conditions. Will all smallholders respond to climate change by migrating internationally? Typically people respond to farm challenges first by turning to locally available resources. For those who do turn to international migration as a last resort, their travels build on long-standing ties that already connect the United States with our neighbors to the South