Perception of Environmental Change Relationship to Labor Migration in the Chitwan Valley

CMIR backed with its highly experienced group of researchers and academicians, expertise in conducting a range research and study programs in the issue of migration and international relations also including other cross-cutting issues. CMIR best utilizes its experiences of working on humanitarian causes for migrant workers and their families to document and extract stories and patterns to analyze the issue; where each of the research work is highly sensitive towards the human value and norms and fundamentals of human rights. Thus, our research works are better proven to provide a deeper understanding to the ground realities faced by migrant workers and their families. Also, CMIR extensively studies the international relations and associated policy dynamics to come with policy discourse and recommendations for improvising the migration status-quo through better performance of the foreign policies of/in the origin and destination countries.

Title: Perception of Environmental Change Relationship to Labor Migration in the Chitwan Valley

Type: Research Report

Year: 2019

Published by: Center for Migration and International Relations

This research examines environmental change, in terms of agriculture production, influence on out migration from the Chitwan Valley in Nepal. As the first part of a longitudinal study, a maximum variation sampling method was used to gather data on farming households’ perceptions of environmental change and labor migration. While collecting field data, verbal consent was obtained from research participants and their identities protected. This study uses the measures of environmental change, social capital, and environmental history to analyze risk formation and amplification along migrant networks. Additionally, using t-tests, this data was compared to a sample from the Chitwan Valley Family Study (CVFS) to observe change in perception and labor migration over time. The analysis concludes that perception of environmental change interacts with socio-cultural processes in ways that intensify household level migration. In addition, environmental change is one of the main factors causing low efficiency in agriculture production, leading households to diversify occupation and income through labor migration.