Understanding the Climate Change-Migration Nexus through the Lens of Household Surveys: An Empirical Review to Assess Data Gaps

Over the past two decades, the causal relationship between climate change and migration has gainedincreasing prominence on the international political agenda. Despite recent advances in both conceptual frameworks andapplied techniques, the empirical evidence does not provide clear-cut conclusions, mainly due to the intrinsiccomplexity of the phenomena of interest, the irreducible heterogeneity of the transmission mechanisms, some commonmisconceptions, and, in particular, the paucity of adequate data. This data-oriented review first summarizes thefindings of the most recent empirical literature and identifies the main insights as well as the most importantmediating channels and contextual factors. Then, it discusses open issues and assesses the main data gaps thatcurrently prevent more robust quantifications. Finally, the paper highlights opportunities for exploring these researchquestions, exploiting the potential of the existing multi-topic and multi-purpose household survey data sets,such as those produced by the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study. The paper focuses on the Living StandardsMeasurement Study–Integrated Surveys on Agriculture program to discuss potential improvements for integrating standardhousehold surveys with additional modules and data sources.