Presented by IWMI's Fraser Sugden at the 2016 Stockholm World Water Week, Stockholm, Sweden, on August 29, 2016. Session: Migration and water management: Lessons for policy and practice

1. Migration, agrarian transition and water
management in an era of globalisation and climate
change
Dr Fraser Sugden Senior Researcher - Political Economy and Water Governance
Nepal Country Representative, International Water Management Institute

2. Migration – defining issue of
our times
• Refugee crisis in Europe only a small part of a
much greater demographic transformation.
• Seasonal or temporary movement of labour
dominates migration flows today and is
emblematic of an increasingly multi-polar global
economy.
• Internal migration flows: 244 million people live
outside their country of birth worldwide
(UNFPA, 2016), and 740 million internal
migrants.

3. • China agricultural image...

5. Engagement with the source of
migration flows
• Strong (and justified) focus in development
research on the migrants themselves, and the
outcomes on host communities
• Important increasingly to better understand the
social, political and economic dynamics in source
communities
• Causes of migration are rooted in agrarian and
natural resource based economy in sending
regions, and the impact of this movement on
those who stay behind is significant.

6. Learning from the past
Source: Wikimedia commons
• Great labour migrations of Industrial revolution
Europe represented a break from the land.
• A new start for farming families
• Migration a by-product of the proleterianisation
of the peasantry and development of capitalist
agriculture.
• New lives in cities, wages rose, and emerging
welfare systems

7. Migration today – ties to the
land

10. Why is water important
• Labour migration in the Majority World is
intricately connected with agrarian stress –
climate change; weak terms of trade; rising
living costs.
• Migration increasingly fills the gap
• Water security however, is increasingly
important for agriculture at a time of climate
and economic stress – plays a role in mediating
migrant flows
• Role of irrigation in offering a fallback at times
of drought, while increasing cropping intensity
for food security.

11. Vulnerability of those who stay
behind

12. Access to water for those who
stay behind

14. Migration and water
management institutions

15. Policy questions
• Irrigation interventions themselves need to
address structural constraints which are driving
farmers to migrate rather than invest on the land
• Investments with ‘youth’ are critical
• Water management interventions need to be
sensitive
• ‘Harnessing’ migration
• Increased recognition that it is not just a political or
humanitarian issue, but a development issue –
migrants can be agents of change
• Recognition by donors and bilateral agencies
• Flow of remittances can be harnessed for investments
in agriculture and irrigation

16. Thank you…