Descriptive Analysis of the Individual Migratory Pathways According to Environmental Typologies

This study tests the influence of environmental changes on migration in Burkina Faso. It describes individual migratory pathways in the 1960–1999 period in Burkina Faso, using environmental typologies of origins and destinations based on rainfall variations and land degradation. The study links data from a national longitudinal (retrospective) survey with fine resolution rainfall data and land degradation data. Results suggest that environmental factors influence, but in different ways, both the probability to out-migrate and the selection of a destination once the migration decision has been made. Migration seems to be more influenced by a slow-acting process such as land degradation than by episodic events such as droughts.