Climate Variability and Development Interventions Influence Migration Aspirations and Capabilities of Project Beneficiaries in Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

In recent years, the European Union (EU) and other donors have increasingly instrumentalised their development cooperation to meet their own domestic migration policy goals, under the assumption that different development interventions—such as building climate resilience – may result in less outward migration from the recipient country. However, it is not yet understood how increased climate resilience would influence individual migration aspirations and capabilities. We conducted 32 in-depth interviews (IDI) and eight focus group discussions (FGD) with beneficiaries of the EU RESET Plus climate-resilience building project in southern Ethiopia. Half of the respondents are adult direct beneficiaries, and the other half are indirect beneficiaries (youths 17–24 years old). By applying a modified aspirations-capabilities framework, we extended the migration-development nexus to climate change and climate-resilience building. We found that climate change worsened perceived conditions and prospects for the future, while the development intervention mostly reinforced already emerging migration aspirations. By improving agricultural output in the context of climate variability, the RESET Plus project contributed to supporting people who wanted to stay to actually be able to do so but also encouraging those wanting to leave by slightly increasing migration capabilities.