MIGRATION DRIVERS FROM RURAL SENEGAL TO DAKAR: LACK OF JOBS IN A CLIMATE CHANGE SCENARIO

Migration is a form of adaptation to climate change, the most relevant environmental problem that humanity faces at the moment. We aimed to improve our knowledge on the perceptions about migration drivers of people emigrating from rural areas suffering land degradation and to characterize their social profiles and their migration projects. With this aim, internal migrations from rural areas to Dakar (Senegal) were chosen as our study system. We carried out a survey to immigrant workers in Dakar. We hypothesized that internal migrations in Senegal would be induced by multiple factors, with environmental conditions related to desertification and climate change playing important roles. Internal migrations from Senegalese rural areas to Dakar were mostly concentrated in arid and semi-arid regions. Lack of job opportunities was the dominant driver of migration. However, land degradation and climate change were not the main perceived drivers of migration, immigrants in Dakar thought that the climate was changing. These perceptions of climate change depended on gender and on the place of origin of immigrants in Dakar. The vast majority of respondents (85%) thought the climate was changing, but there were differences between the perception of people from arid zones and those from humid areas. Restoration efforts on degraded land are needed to fight desertification, increase social and ecosystem resilience, and increase job opportunities in rural areas.