Public lecture on effects of weather shocks on migration
WFSC held a public lecture focused on the effects of weather shocks over food producing regions with keynote speaker Prof. Wolfram Schlenker.
The European Union has seen an unprecedented wave of immigration since 2015. Prof. Wolfram Schlenker, Columbia University, and his colleagues investigated the role of weather shocks in global distress-driven migration to the European Union in 2000-2014, i.e., preceding the recent crisis. They found that weather shocks in agricultural regions in developing countries around the globe caused increased emigration towards the European Union as measured by asylum applications recorded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
These findings were presented by Prof. Schlenker at a public lecture on 12 July 2017 held by the WFSC at ETH Zurich. The lecture entitled “Weather shocks over food producing regions in developing countries significantly affect asylum applications to the European Union” was followed by a discussion moderated by WFSC member Prof. Robert Finger, Agricultural Economics and Policy. Find out more about the keynote speaker by downloading the flyer (PDF, 280 KB).