Abstract

Climate change may alter the relationship between migration and health through several pathways. For instance, although past research on migration as a livelihood strategy identifies positive health selectivity, climate change may alter this “healthy migrant” effect. In addition, increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events due to climate change may result in more individuals being exposed to the negative health consequences of displacement. This chapter reviews these pathways in addition to recent research from rural Mexico that offers some of the first empirical evidence of the migration-climate-health connection, suggesting that health selectivity does, indeed, vary according to environmental context. We argue that such pathways linking climate-migration-health require attention by the research community, while also requiring collaboration across disciplinary boundaries in order to bridge demography, health and environmental disciplines. Further, continued climate change mandates effective research-to-policy communication in order to inform policy and programmatic response.