Haydon-Allen Building Seminar Room HA 2175 
Presented by: Hedda Ransan-Elliott (PhD scholar, Sociology, RSSS)
RSVP for light lunch: alden.klovdahl@anu.edu.au by Friday 5 November 4 PM

Human migration-climate dynamics: Conceptual and methodological issues

There is a growing interest in the environment-migration nexus driven in part by concerns about the impacts of projected climate change on human migration patterns. Policy concerns relate to the increase in migrant numbers, and importantly to the welfare of those who may be migrating under particularly difficult humanitarian circumstances. This research aims to improve understanding of the impacts of climate change on migration, how it may be characterised and how it is experienced from the perspective of migrants. To answer the broad research question, a multiple case study approach will be undertaken in the Philippines. There is emerging but as yet mostly anecdotal evidence that climate related disasters, both slow and sudden-onset, affect internal migration patterns in the Philippines. However, little is known about internal migration in the Philippines especially as it relates to climatic changes. This seminar will cover the conceptual and methodological challenges of environmental migration and outline the project’s research aims and methods.

Hedda Ransan-Elliott has a BSc (resource and environmental management), Honours from the Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU. Her fieldwork in the Philippines will be funded by an Endeavour Research Fellowship.