International Migration Responses to Modern Europe’s Most Destructive Earthquake: Messina and Reggio Calabria, 1908

Abstract

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Partisan Residential Sorting on Climate Change Risk

“…As we noted previously though, the (de)stabilizing nature of migration could critically depend on the type of resident migration. Consistent with evidence in modern data on sorting near high-risk flood zones (Bakkensen and Ma 2020), and migration following natural disasters (Boustan et al 2012;Mahajan & Yang 2020;Spitzer et al 2020), Hornbeck (2020) shows that Dust Bowl migrants were "negatively selected" via lower education and likely lower income. 7 An important difference in our case is that migration is responding to future expectations, which means that it affects future responses to climate change.…”

Environmental migration? An overview of the literature

“…This might be motivated by the fact that the European continent is mostly seen as a destination for migrants than an origin. It should not surprise that the two articles covering European countries, namely Italy (Spitzer et al, 2020) and the Netherlands (Jennings and Gray, 2015) analyze historical data of mobility at the beginning of the XX century (respectively earthquake in Sicily and Calabria and climate variability associated with riverine flooding in the Netherlands). Nevertheless, figures show that Europe is not unrelated to the occurrence and frequency of hazards as well as to sizable internal mobility that should receive some attention.…”

Does Environmental Change Affect Migration Especially into the EU?

“…When it happened, many people chose to migrate abroad from southern Italy as the international borders were open, facilitating the migration choice as a response. (Spitzer et al 2020) showed the effects of this earthquake on international migration from Italy to other EU countries and the US and found that, on average, this disaster positively affected migration. There was heterogeneity in the people's responses, with a more positive relation with agricultural laborers comprising the other share of the labor force.…”

“…For example, the Messina-Reggio Calabria earthquake in Italy destroyed the state's capital and massively affected people's living standards and wealth. Hence, their sources of income and financial safety were highly diminished, so staying in their home state was no longer an option (Spitzer et al 2020). There is a debate on the effect of environmental shocks.…”