Water stress and human migration: a global, georeferenced review of empirical research

This report assesses and maps 184 peer-reviewed, empirical research articles selected for their focus on linkages between water stress and human migration. First and most importantly, this literature asserts that migration is universal. Migration is an extremely common social process and is normal in almost every society on earth. Moreover, migration is not a pathological response to environmental change. Environment- influenced migration is rarely (if ever) a resource threat to the regions to which people move. The literature does, however, observe that negative social outcomes can result from narratives that stigmatize migrants and/or cast migrants as a security threat – especially when these narratives are used to justify increased surveillance and monitoring of these people.