Rural Out-Migration to Alternative Destinations in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes: The Roles of Livelihood Diversification and Environmental Assets

Clark L. Gray, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Out-migration from rural areas is a key driver of change in the developing world, but connections between this process and rural livelihoods have not been fully explored. Motivated by the literatures on environmental refugees and livelihood diversification, this paper addresses the influence of environmental assets and livelihood strategies on rural out-migration from the southern Ecuadorian Andes. The data originate from a multilevel longitudinal survey implemented in a key region of out-migration and environmental risk. I use a multinomial event history model to compare the effects of demographic factors and livelihood activities and assets on out-migration to local, rural, urban and international destinations. The results indicate that (1) drivers of out-migration differ substantially across migration streams, (2) origin-area livelihood diversification primarily increases internal migration but mostly decreases international migration, and (3) environmental assets have important influences on out-migration, but effects are not unidirectional as predicted by the literature on environmental refugees.