IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v157y2022ics0305750x22001280.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

It’s all about politics: Migration and resource conflicts in the global south

Author

Listed:
  • Wiederkehr, Charlotte
  • Ide, Tobias
  • Seppelt, Ralf
  • Hermans, Kathleen

Abstract

Both researchers and policy makers have repeatedly expressed concerns that migration will enhance conflicts regarding renewable resources in destination areas. This concept is fuelled by projections of large future migration flows within the Global South, resulting from armed conflict, global environmental change, and persistent economic inequalities. However, as of yet, there is no conclusive empirical evidence of a nexus between migration, resource competition, and conflict at an aggregate level. Case studies draw contradicting conclusions, and cross-case research on the topic remains scarce. Here, we combine comprehensive qualitative and quantitative data from 20 cases in rural Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on these cases, we investigate why certain areas hosting migrants have resource-related conflicts, while others do not. Using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), we evaluate and elucidate two combinations of conditions under which resource conflict involving migrants in destination areas occurs: (1) high reliance on natural resources and negative othering of migrants in terms of resource use, and (2) government policies supporting parts of the migrant group coupled with limited resource use possibilities due to conservation efforts or industrial activities. By underlining the crucial role of grievances related to perceived unfair resource access and the strong influence of government actions on local migrant-host dynamics, we challenge deterministic narratives of migration, resource scarcity and conflict.

Suggested Citation

  • Wiederkehr, Charlotte & Ide, Tobias & Seppelt, Ralf & Hermans, Kathleen, 2022. "It’s all about politics: Migration and resource conflicts in the global south," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:157:y:2022:i:c:s0305750x22001280
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105938
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X22001280
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105938?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fearon, James D. & Laitin, David D., 2011. "Sons of the Soil, Migrants, and Civil War," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 199-211, February.
    2. Koubi, Vally & Böhmelt, Tobias & Spilker, Gabriele & Schaffer, Lena, 2018. "The Determinants of Environmental Migrants' Conflict Perception," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(4), pages 905-936, October.
    3. Salehyan, Idean & Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede, 2006. "Refugees and the Spread of Civil War," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(2), pages 335-366, April.
    4. Courtland Adams & Tobias Ide & Jon Barnett & Adrien Detges, 2018. "Sampling bias in climate–conflict research," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(3), pages 200-203, March.
    5. Frederic Noel Kamta & Janpeter Schilling & Jürgen Scheffran, 2021. "Water Resources, Forced Migration and Tensions with Host Communities in the Nigerian Part of the Lake Chad Basin," Resources, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-14, March.
    6. Ayalneh Bogale & Benedikt Korf, 2007. "To share or not to share? (non-)violence, scarcity and resource access in Somali Region, Ethiopia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 743-765.
    7. Van Leeuwen, Mathijs & Van Der Haar, Gemma, 2016. "Theorizing the Land–Violent Conflict Nexus," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 94-104.
    8. Boone, Catherine, 2017. "Sons of the Soil Conflict in Africa: Institutional Determinants of Ethnic Conflict Over Land," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 276-293.
    9. Kate Burrows & Patrick L. Kinney, 2016. "Exploring the Climate Change, Migration and Conflict Nexus," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, April.
    10. Ragin, Charles C., 2000. "Fuzzy-Set Social Science," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226702773, December.
    11. Ruben Weesie, 2019. "Towards Adaptive Commons: A Case Study of Agro-Pastoral Dams in Northern Ghana," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-29, January.
    12. Boone, Catherine, 2017. "Sons of the soil conflict in Africa: institutional determinants of ethnic conflict over land," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 69794, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Ghimire, Ramesh & Ferreira, Susana & Dorfman, Jeffrey H., 2015. "Flood-Induced Displacement and Civil Conflict," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 614-628.
    14. Konstantin Ash & Nick Obradovich, 2020. "Climatic Stress, Internal Migration, and Syrian Civil War Onset," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 64(1), pages 3-31, January.
    15. Hemant R. Ojha & Prabin Bhusal & Naya S. Paudel & Paul M. Thompson & Parvin Sultana, 2019. "Turning conflicts into cooperation? The role of adaptive learning and deliberation in managing natural resources conflicts in Nepal," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(S1), pages 107-120, July.
    16. Abrahams, Daniel, 2020. "Conflict in abundance and peacebuilding in scarcity: Challenges and opportunities in addressing climate change and conflict," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    17. Belay, Kassa, 2004. "Resettlement of Peasants in Ethiopia," Journal of Rural Development/Nongchon-Gyeongje, Korea Rural Economic Institute, vol. 27(4), December.
    18. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226702766 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Tobias Ide, 2017. "Research methods for exploring the links between climate change and conflict," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(3), May.
    20. Satyal Pravat, Poshendra & Humphreys, David, 2013. "Using a multilevel approach to analyse the case of forest conflicts in the Terai, Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 47-55.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Federica Cappelli & Caterina Conigliani & Davide Consoli & Valeria Costantini & Elena Paglialunga, 2023. "Climate change and armed conflicts in Africa: temporal persistence, non-linear climate impact and geographical spillovers," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(2), pages 517-560, July.
    2. Matthew I. Mitchell, 2018. "Migration, sons of the soil conflict, and international relations," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 21(1), pages 51-67, March.
    3. Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio & Özak, Ömer, 2023. "(De facto) Historical Ethnic Borders and Contemporary Conflict in Africa," MPRA Paper 116868, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio & Özak, Ömer, 2024. "(De facto) historical ethnic borders and land tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    5. Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio & Özak, Ömer, 2019. "Borderline Disorder: (De facto) Historical Ethnic Borders and Contemporary Conflict in Africa," MPRA Paper 110197, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Sep 2021.
    6. Mukherjee, Shivaji, 2018. "Historical legacies of colonial indirect rule: Princely states and Maoist insurgency in central India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 113-129.
    7. Mihalache-O'Keef, Andreea S., 2018. "Whose greed, whose grievance, and whose opportunity? Effects of foreign direct investments (FDI) on internal conflict," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 187-206.
    8. Jansesberger, Viktoria, 2024. "Storms, floods, landslides and elections in India's growing metropolises: Hotbeds for political protest?," Working Papers 28, University of Konstanz, Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality. Perceptions, Participation and Policies".
    9. Tobias Ide & Miguel Rodriguez Lopez & Christiane Fröhlich & Jürgen Scheffran, 2021. "Pathways to water conflict during drought in the MENA region," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 58(3), pages 568-582, May.
    10. Fabien Prieur & Ingmar Schumacher, 2022. "The impact of conflicts on climate and migration policy," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(4), pages 653-681, August.
    11. Tushar Bharati & Wina Yoman, 2021. "Internal Migration and Labor Market Outcomes in Indonesia," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 21-05, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    12. Hye-Ryoung Jung, 2024. "The Historical Origins of Communal Violence in Africa: Common Pool Resources-Driven Trust and Its Contrasting Effects on Violence," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 36(1), pages 53-81, February.
    13. Crippa, Andrea & d'Agostino, Giorgio & Dunne, Paul & Pieroni, Luca, 2022. "Conflict as a Cause of Migration," MPRA Paper 112327, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Maconga, Carson W., 2023. "Arid fields where conflict grows: How drought drives extremist violence in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    15. De Jong, Terah U. & Sauerwein, Titus, 2021. "State-owned minerals, village-owned land: How a shared property rights framework helped formalize artisanal diamond miners in Côte d’Ivoire between 1986 and 2016," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    16. fofana, moustapha & Lawson, Laté & ballo, zié, 2019. "Assessing the migration and social instability nexus in sub-saharan Africa : A spatial analysis," MPRA Paper 96471, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Etienne Inedit Blaise Tsomb Tsomb & Mermoz Homer III Nsoga Nsoga & Cyrille Dominick Bitting, 2024. "Climate change vulnerability and conflicts in Africa: evidence from the migrations channel," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(7), pages 18811-18854, July.
    18. Valentina Bosetti & Cristina Cattaneo & Giovanni Peri, 2021. "Should they stay or should they go? Climate migrants and local conflicts," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 21(4), pages 619-651.
    19. Tushar Bharati & Adnan M. S. Fakir & Wina Yoman, 2024. "Internal Migration and Labor Market Outcomes in Indonesia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(2), pages 997-1040.
    20. Damette, Olivier & Goutte, Stéphane, 2023. "Beyond climate and conflict relationships: New evidence from a Copula-based analysis on an historical perspective," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 295-323.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:157:y:2022:i:c:s0305750x22001280. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.