Climate adaptation among transnationally connected households in Coastal Havana Province, Cuba

Abstract

In recent decades, Cuba has experienced intensifying climate and environmental change alongside a deepening socio-economic crisis, which has contributed to new waves of emigration that reinforce already dense transnational connections and networks. While early research on environmental change and mobility often framed migration as a last-resort response and immobility as the result of being unable to leave, more recent scholarship has shown that moving and staying form a broader spectrum of coping and adaptation. Building on relational and translocal approaches to mobility, this article understands coping and adaptation as processes negotiated across households, places, and networks, where mobility and immobility are mutually constituted. The article examines mobility-linked coping and adaptation strategies from the perspective of origin households with transnational connections living in a highly exposed peri-urban coastal village in Havana Province, Cuba. Based on 2 months of qualitative fieldwork with 21 selected households, it develops a typology of coping and adaptation practices and analyzes how these practices unfold through translocal networks. Findings indicate that among sampled households, mobility and transnational connections function as key adaptive resources: remittances support incremental housing reinforcement, self-directed climate-related residential mobility, and emergency responses, while translocal networks circulate information, advice, and affective support. Households who remain in place are active co-producers of resilience. However, mobility cannot substitute for robust in situ adaptation. Access to mobility-driven adaptation resources is uneven, and their effectiveness is constrained by sanctions, inflation, restrictive monetary policies, and the informalization of transfer channels.

1 Introduction

Cuba's climate vulnerability is shaped by its exposure to coastal hazards. As an island state, it faces recurrent hurricanes and tropical and sea-level rise, leading to more severe coastal flooding, beach erosion, and damage to infrastructure. These risks are compounded by saltwater intrusion, more frequent droughts, and rising temperatures. At the same time, the degradation of coastal ecosystems, particularly mangroves, wetlands, and coral reefs, weakens Cuba's natural defenses against storms and erosion. Together, these pressures threaten agriculture, fisheries, tourism, and freshwater security (Board, 2012; CITMA, 2022b).

Alongside this context of environmental and climate fragility the island is experiencing a significant socio-economic crisis, compelling local populations to confront deepening inequalities, with an estimated 40–45% of the population living in poverty due to collapsing real wages, inflation, deteriorating services, and financial isolation (Pérez Villanueva, 2023; Bahamonde, 2023, 2025). Official metrics such as the 2024-based Multidimensional poverty Index obscure this decline (UNDP, 2024), while evidence highlights rising child food poverty and falling human development, compounded by sanctions and restricted financial access (UNICEF, 2024; UNDP, 2025). Reliable, comprehensive data on Cuban emigration remain hard to access, since official figures are often incomplete, fragmented, or not publicly released. Independent estimates indicate that net migration may have surpassed 545,000 people in 2024; together with historically low fertility rates, this suggests that Cuba may have lost almost one-quarter of its population between 2021 and 2024 (Albizu-Campos, 2025).

In relation to climate change, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have been framed since the 1994 UN Global Conference as frontliners, given their high exposure to climate hazards despite minimal emissions (Heger et al., 2008). Alongside their higher exposure, SIDS are often considered vulnerable because of their isolation and limited institutional and financial capacity (Kerr, 2005; Robinson, 2017; Weir and Pittock, 2017). However, these territories are often framed as resilient, supported by traditional knowledge, social networks, and strong place-based identities (Ratter, 2018; Barnett and Waters, 2016; Kelman and West, 2009; Mycoo et al., 2022).

Many SIDS have responded to climate and environmental change through National Adaptation Plans that emphasize ecosystem-based measures and equity concerns (Thomas et al., 2019). In 2017, the Cuban government launched the Tarea Vida State Plan for Climate Change Adaptation, which identifies highly exposed zones and prioritizes coastal protection, ecosystem restoration, and the state-led relocation of communities away from high-risk areas (CITMA, 2017). While reports provide information on the progression of mitigation and adaptation efforts related to the Tarea Vida State Plan (CITMA, 2022a), little is known about individual households' everyday practices concerning coping and adaptation¹ toward climate and environmental degradation.

Empirical evidence suggests coping and adaptation strategies are also enacted “from below”. Coping and adaptation occur through everyday personal and household practices (Carman and Zint, 2020). Individuals, households, and local civil society are primarily associated with implementation and coordination, while financing and monitoring remain concentrated at higher institutional levels (Petzold et al., 2023).

Given the limited number of studies on household coping and adaptation practices linked to transnational connections toward climate and environmental degradation, particularly in peri-urban areas of the Caribbean region, this article addresses two guiding research questions. First, what specific adaptation practices are employed by sampled households living in a peri-urban coastal village in Municipality Playa, Havana Province, in response to climate and environmental change? Second, how do these strategies intersect with, and depend upon, mobility patterns and translocal networks? Building on these empirical and conceptual gaps, this research pursues two interrelated objectives: (1) to create a typology of specific coping and adaptation practices among sampled households living in the selected study site in peri-urban Havana and (2) to explore how coping and adaptation strategies unfold through translocal networks.

Conceptually, this study situates mobility within a broader relational mobilities framework, understanding adaptation and coping practices as mutually constituted relational and translocal processes (Sakdapolrak et al., 2024). Mobility and immobility are approached as interconnected positions along a continuum through which people negotiate exposure, shape climate change adaptation and coping strategies, access resources, provide care, and sustain attachments to place.

By foregrounding the intersection between environmental and climate stressors and translocal networks, this study contributes to debates on the (im)mobility-adaptation nexus and translocal resilience within urban/peri-urban climate vulnerability contexts in Cuba. The paper shows how adaptation emerges through the co-constitution of mobility and immobility as a practice simultaneously anchored in local and transnational social spaces (Zickgraf, 2022), and how resilience is negotiated through uneven access to both local resources and transnational ties.

The remainder of this article proceeds as follows. Section 2 proposes the analytical framework of the paper, which draws on the (im)mobility-adaptation nexus and situates the case study within recent empirical literature. Section 3 outlines the qualitative, ethnographic research design and introduces the study area. Section 4 presents empirical findings on environmental perceptions and mobility-related adaptation practices. Section 5 discusses the findings and Section 6 concludes with key implications for research and policy.

2 (Im)mobility-adaptation nexus in climate and environmental change regimes

This study conceptualizes mobility and immobility as relational, overlapping and co-constitutive. It adopts a continuum perspective in which movement, staying, waiting, return, and circulation are dynamically reshaped by unequal capabilities, aspirations, infrastructures and socio-environmental conditions (Schewel, 2019; Carling, 2002). Drawing on critical mobilities scholarship, this study approaches the relationship between (im)mobility as interrelated modes of movement through which people continuously negotiate emplacement and displacement (Zickgraf, 2022; Boas et al., 2022; Everuss, 2023). This approach responds to critiques of the “mobility bias”, which has often treated staying as residual or passive rather than an active and differentiated condition that may be desired, constrained, involuntary or ambivalent depending on people's resources, attachments, and obligations (Vezzoli, 2023).

A relational understanding of space further emphasizes that place is continuously co-produced through mobile and immobile practices, perceptions, and social relations (Massey, 2005). To account for these dynamics, this article draws on transnational and translocal perspectives. Classic work on transnationalism shows that migrants and non-migrants may sustain multi-stranded social fields linking places of origin and destination (Schiller et al., 1995; Levitt and Schiller, 2004). Building on this, translocality emphasizes that place is relationally constituted through circulations of people, resources, ideas, care, and obligations across multiple sites (Brickell and Datta, 2011; Greiner and Sakdapolrak, 2013). This perspective reveals how households that remain physically in place still participate in translocal networks that shape adaptive strategies, risk-sharing practices, and senses of belonging (Zickgraf, 2022).

The (im)mobility-adaptation nexus is understood here through a continuum perspective. The relationships between (im)mobility and adaptation can be situated across overlapping forms of in situ adaptation, relocation, and mobility for adaptation (Bernasconi, 2025). This article focuses on one specific position within the (im)mobility-adaptation spectrum: households that remain in their place of origin despite climate and environmental risks, while sustaining transnational ties with mobile family members.

In situ adaptation refers to practices aimed at reducing exposure and vulnerability while allowing households to remain in their place of residence and enhance adaptive capacity under changing livelihood conditions (Bardsley and Hugo, 2010). This is particularly relevant to environmental non-migrants, defined as those who maintain “spatial continuity” in the same place despite environmental risk (Mallick et al., 2023). Their immobility cannot be reduced to either choice or constraint, since staying may reflect overlapping factors such as limited opportunities or willingness to leave, place attachment, insufficient economic or human capital, household responsibilities, or unequal mobility capabilities and aspirations (Carling, 2002; Schewel, 2019; Adams, 2016; Betzold, 2015; Mortreux and Barnett, 2009; Gioli et al., 2014b; Vezzoli, 2023). However, adaptation in place does not preclude mobility: households may combine staying in place with circulation, micro and seasonal mobility, remittances, communication, and other translocal resources (Sakdapolrak et al., 2014; Zickgraf, 2022; Boas et al., 2022; Everuss, 2023).

State-led relocation refers to planned movement carried out under public authority, usually within national borders, to reduce exposure to disasters and environmental or climate-related risks (McAdam and Ferris, 2015; Ferris et al., 2015). By contrast, household- or individual-initiated mobility refers to movements undertaken by individuals or households themselves, often drawing on family networks, remittances, or livelihood strategies, and occurring without direct state organization. I use the term self-directed climate-related residential mobility to describe individual or household-level changes in usual residence that are shaped, at least in part, by environmental or climate-related pressures, but that are not organized, mandated, or implemented through state-led resettlement, planned relocation, or other formal displacement-management schemes.

These forms of movements involve different degrees of agency, constraint, planning, and institutional responsibility (McAdam and Ferris, 2015; Yarina and Wescoat, 2023; Bower and Weerasinghe, 2021). In the Cuban context, state-led relocation is embedded in Tarea Vida National Plan's coastal adaptation agenda. The adaptation plan states that new homes should not be built in coastal settlements forecast to disappear because of permanent flooding or in the most vulnerable areas, and that demographic density should be reduced in low coastal zones. It reports that during the first stage, 158 homes were moved, equal to 11% of homes in settlements with total expected impact by 2050 (CITMA, 2022a).

The study is concerned with how mobility-linked resources, relations, and obligations contribute to adaptation practices used in place. Mobility-linked adaptation is treated as contingent rather than automatic: remittances, knowledge transfer, and translocal support may contribute to adaptation by helping households diversify income, redistribute risk, improve housing, or access scarce goods and services, but these effects depend on legal status, resources, social position, and unequal mobility regimes (Warner, 2009; Dandy et al., 2019; Greiner and Sakdapolrak, 2013; Boas et al., 2022). The framework therefore shifts the analytical focus away from discrete migration events and toward the relational practices through which households negotiate environmental and socio-economic pressures through movement, staying, exchange, attachment, and constraint (Adger et al., 2018; Zickgraf, 2022).

2.1 Mobility-linked adaptation and coping strategies from the origin households' perspective

This section highlights the main mobility-linked mechanisms that may shape in situ adaptation practices in places of origin in the context of climate change found in empirical literature. It focuses on the perspective of origin-area households and on how translocal and transnational ties may influence local adaptation practices.

Recent years have witnessed increased scholarly attention directed at coping and adaptation practices, but the majority of this corpus focuses on rural households living from agricultural activities, given their sensitivity and vulnerability to climate impacts (Bryan et al., 2013; Panda et al., 2013; Jhaa et al., 2017; Sobczak-Szelc and Fekih, 2020; Verma and Sudan, 2021; Paerregaard, 2024). Other significant contexts, such as the adaptation and coping strategies of urban and peri-urban populations whose primary livelihoods do not revolve around agriculture, remain underexplored (Vincent and Cundill, 2022).

This section examines how labor migration as income-diversification and risk-spreading strategy (Maharjan et al., 2021), social remittances and non-material returns (Entzinger and Scholten, 2022; Sakdapolrak and Diniega, 2025; Afifi et al., 2016), risk-sharing mechanisms through social networks (Sakdapolrak et al., 2024) may matter for adaptive capacities in climate-exposed settings, providing the analytical framing for the empirical discussion that follows.

Differences in economic opportunity, notably employment opportunities and wage differentials have been vastly explored during the 1970′s in different geographical contexts, such as urban-rural mobility dynamics or global North-South movements (Harris and Todaro, 1970). The “homo oeconomicus” rational cost-benefit analysis constitutes the core of the neo-classical migration theory and are considered one of the primary factors of migratory movements. Within the Neo-economic Labor Migration approach, mobility has been conceptualized as a household strategy aimed at diversifying income sources and spreading economic risks (Mincer, 1978; Stark and Bloom, 1985).

In the context of climate change and environmental degradation, mobility provides a mechanism for households to reduce vulnerability to climate variability by securing alternative sources of income, particularly in regions where climate-induced livelihood disruptions, such as declining agricultural productivity, pose significant threats (Brandt et al., 2016; Gemenne and Blocher, 2017; Afifi et al., 2016).

In 2024, an estimated $857 billion was sent in remittances (Bank, 2024), highlighting the importance of financial circuits in local economies and everyday lives among countries and households of origin. In the same year, Cuba received an estimated $4 billion, representing about 26% of Cuba's GDP (Orozco, 2024), a volume that is exceptionally high relative to the size of the national economy and population. This reflects the centrality of Cuba's transnational household economy, shaped by a large and highly concentrated diaspora and by recent waves of emigration.

In the context of climate and environmental stress, remittances contribute significantly to coping and adaptation practices by financing investments in resilient infrastructure, such as irrigation systems, and livelihood diversification (Musah-Surugu et al., 2018; Chetto et al., 2025; Ng'ang'a et al., 2016). Remittances are often used for purchasing drought-resistant seeds, investing in small businesses, and strengthening financial security, thereby enhancing long-term adaptive capacity (Sobczak-Szelc and Fekih, 2020; Maharjan et al., 2021).

Conversely, remittances are often allocated to consumption or non-adaptive expenditures, such as improved housing, food, healthcare, education, or consumer goods (Maharjan et al., 2020; Entzinger and Scholten, 2022). These expenditures are critical in sustaining household members and meeting immediate needs. Investing in healthcare reduces vulnerabilities to health-related risks, while spending on education equips household members with skills that could open new livelihood opportunities in the future (Koska et al., 2013; Vikram, 2021; Askarov and Doucouliagos, 2020). Similarly, expenditure on food during shortages and on basic goods ensures the day-to-day survival of families, enabling them to cope better with environmental and economic stressors (Chetto et al., 2025). Therefore, although these uses of remittances might not appear transformative at first glance, they contribute to the stability and wellbeing of households.

There is a significant emphasis on livelihoods in literature, yet it often overlooks crucial non-material factors that contribute to reducing vulnerability (Levitt and Lamba-Nieves, 2011; Scheffran et al., 2012; Rockenbauch et al., 2019; Entzinger and Scholten, 2022; Szaboova et al., 2023; Sakdapolrak and Diniega, 2025). Migration and mobility are not solely about monetary gains: mobility also facilitates the transfer of information, knowledge and skills (Entzinger and Scholten, 2022).

Migrants or highly mobile people acquire expertise and technical know-how in urban or international contexts, which they often bring back to their communities. Returning migrants may introduce innovative farming techniques (Jhaa et al., 2017), new technical knowledge (Entzinger and Scholten, 2016), better resource management practices (Paerregaard, 2024), new business models or awareness on institutional arrangements and services to enhance agricultural productivity (Jhaa et al., 2017). These social transfers can enhance adaptive capacity by introducing strategies that are better suited to a changing climate.

Mobility fosters the formation of social networks that facilitate adaptation through risk-sharing mechanisms and translocal connections (Scheffran et al., 2012; Pandey et al., 2022). Translocal social resilience frameworks emphasize the importance of migrant networks in facilitating access to jobs, housing, and financial resources while also enabling the flow of climate adaptation knowledge (Sakdapolrak et al., 2016, 2024). These networks play a critical role in post-disaster recovery, funding adaptation projects, and supporting vulnerable households (Dalgas, 2018; Su, 2022). Information and communication technologies (ICT) have further strengthened these ties, allowing migrants to maintain active engagement with their home communities, shaping translocal adaptation efforts remotely (Boas, 2017). Beyond economic and knowledge-based contributions, transnational social networks provide psychological and emotional support, reinforcing individual and collective resilience (Lowe et al., 2015; Pacoma and Delda, 2019).

2.2 Empirical and conceptual limits of mobility-linked adaptation and coping strategies

Literature on the mobility-adaptation nexus remains uneven in both its geographical empirical focus and conceptual scope. This imbalance is reflected in a keyword search conducted in the CliMig database, which contains more than 2,800 references on climate change and mobility. In this database, “MigAdapt” is used as a keyword to categorize studies that examine migration as a strategy to cope with environmental degradation. When this keyword was cross-searched with regional keywords, the results revealed an uneven geographical distribution: Asia accounted for 214 references, Africa for 150, Oceania for 33, Latin America for 24, and the Caribbean for only 5. These results suggest that, although migration as adaptation has become a significant theme in the literature, Caribbean contexts remain marginal within this field. More broadly, adaptation through mobility has been predominantly examined in rural and agrarian contexts in the Global South, leaving the everyday adaptation practices of urban and peri-urban populations comparatively underexplored (Vincent and Cundill, 2022).

Conceptually, literature often treats remittances, skills and knowledge transfers, and translocal social networks as resources that can support adaptation. However, while remittances enable productive investments, there is a growing concern that heavy reliance on these external financial flows may foster economic dependency and inhibit the development of autonomous, locally-driven initiatives (Meyer and Stroehle, 2025). Households dependent on remittances for essential investments may reduce their incentive to engage in sustainable income-generating activities, potentially undermining local economic resilience (de Haas, 2010; Adger et al., 2014). Moreover, fluctuations in remittance flows, shaped by global economic conditions and migrants' precarity, can expose recipient households to new vulnerabilities, highlighting the limits of remittance-driven adaptation. At the same time, skills and knowledge acquired through mobility may remain underutilized due to poverty, weak infrastructure, or governance failures process among selected households (Entzinger and Scholten, 2016). The benefits of mobility-linked resources are neither automatic nor evenly distributed. Their adaptive potential is shaped by local socio-economic conditions, institutional barriers, and unequal access to resources and transnational ties, which may constrain their practical use and reinforce existing inequalities (de Haas, 2010; Tacoli, 2009; Levitt and Lamba-Nieves, 2011; Adger et al., 2014; Rockenbauch et al., 2019; Pandey et al., 2022; Szaboova et al., 2023; Sakdapolrak et al., 2024). Moreover, households thrive and survive under certain conditions and when these conditions are insufficient, mobility can foster maladaptive outcomes, triggering risks for migrants and households of origin (Afifi et al., 2016; Gioli et al., 2014a). These mechanisms should therefore not be understood as inherently beneficial, but as context-dependent, socially differentiated, and potentially fragile forms of support.

This study addresses these gaps by examining adaptation as a situated and relational process, among selected households in a climate-exposed peri-urban coastal village in Havana through translocal and transnational ties. It also addresses the gap concerning the often implicitly assumed positive effects of remittances, skills, and knowledge transfer by highlighting the need to integrate strengthened local governance in ways that sustain households' practices.

3 Materials and methods

This section introduces the study area, explaining the criteria guiding site selection and situating the locality within broader socio-economic, mobility, and environmental dynamics. It then details the methodological approach through which data were collected and analyzed.

3.1 Study site: environmental and socioeconomic trajectory of the village

To protect the research participants' anonymity, the name of the village is withheld. The study site is situated in Municipality of Playa in Havana Province, 20 km from the capital. Havana Province registers both the highest rate of emigration and internal migration in Cuba (Carrera Doral and Landa Burgos, 2020), positioning it as a key node within national and transnational mobility networks. These trends reflect the province's central role in enabling and concentrating different forms of movement, driven by its economic centrality, social capital, and infrastructural assets, including telecommunications and logistical networks, that facilitate transnational exchanges and mobility flows.

Initially established as a fishing hub, the study site transitioned to a center for sand mining activities during the 1920s, attracting commercial ventures and a subsequent population increase. These developments spurred urbanization, including the expansion of transportation networks such as railways and roads in the early 20th century. By the 1940s, improved communication infrastructure and enhanced accessibility contributed to the area's emergence as a prominent seaside and inland tourism destination. However, intensive resource extraction, demographic expansion, and infrastructural modifications profoundly altered the coastal landscape, amplifying its vulnerability to environmental stressors.²

The environmental fragility of the village has been exacerbated by the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme meteorological events affecting the Caribbean (IPCC, 2022b). Since the 1970s, the area has experienced severe cyclonic activity, beginning with major impacts in 1983, followed by Hurricane Juan in 1985. However, it was the 1993 “Tormenta del Siglo” that marked a critical turning point, inducing irreversible environmental and socio-economic disruptions. According to a biologist from the Centro de Investigaciones Marinas at the University of Havana, interviewed during fieldwork, the storm caused major transformations to the coastal landscape, including the destruction of the western seawall, the formation of escarpments along the street, and the total collapse and damages to houses on the coast shore. A significant volume of sediment was displaced, some deposited into the lagoon, and some covering the main road, while the beach area itself was drastically reduced, limiting its recreational and economic use. The study site struggled to recover fully, and subsequent hurricanes, including Wilma in 2005, have further exacerbated coastal degradation. The compounding effects of recurrent hurricanes and rising sea levels have led to accelerated coastal erosion and shoreline retreat, threatening the stability of both natural and built environments. The resulting inundation and salinization of soil have significantly reduced subsistence activities, while infrastructure deterioration has affected housing. According to the study's participants, the main climate and environmental concerns were related to sea-level rise and consequent coastal erosion. Frequent and stronger extreme meteorological events, such as hurricanes and floodings, are also cited as disruptive on households' resilience.

This specific village was selected because it corresponded to necessary elements related to the focus of the study: the village is recurrently exposed to extreme environmental and climatic events such as sea-level rise, erosion and hurricanes because of its coastal location. Second, the village's location within Havana Province matched characteristics linked to urban or peri-urban setting characterized by high internal and international mobility. These characteristics allowed to observe adaptation and coping strategies among selected households and to understand how these practices are related to transnational networks and connections.

3.2 Qualitative research approach

This study adopts a qualitative research design to examine how mobility operates as a coping and adaptive practice under conditions of climatic stress. Fieldwork was conducted in two intensive phases between 2022 and 2023 in a peri-urban village situated in Municipality Playa, Havana Province, amounting to approximately 2 months of continuous engagement in the study site. Although relatively short in duration, the design privileged depth and intensity of interaction through repeated visits, sustained participant observation, and iterative dialogue with interlocutors who had experienced climate change and environmental degradation in the past 30 years. This relatively short-term field stay was appropriate to the study's aims, as it sought not to establish long-term behavioral patterns but to elicit situated practices of adaptation and mobility in a changing coastal environment. The short fieldwork period is the result of feasibility constraints of conducting independent research in Cuba and the methodological emphasis on intensive immersion and triangulation rather than longitudinal observation.

Households were selected through snowball sampling. Inclusion criteria required participants to reside within coastal areas exposed to climatic hazards, and to belong to households with at least one member engaged in international mobility, maintaining ongoing material or communicative exchanges. These criteria were fundamental to examine mobility-linked adaptation from the perspective of origin households. The final sample comprised 21 household representatives, 15 of whom were women. Participants ranged in age from 25 to 76 years and represented a wide range of occupations, including teaching, transport, fishing, tourism, and public administration. Pre-fieldwork contact and post-fieldwork digital follow-up with participants strengthened continuity and analytic validity. This study is based on a limited number of interlocutors and is therefore not intended to be statistically representative of the wider population. Its purpose is instead to provide a qualitative, in-depth account of how adaptation is experienced, interpreted, and negotiated by the interviewed households in a specific context. Rather than relying on econometric methods or indexes to measure the effects of remittances, skills, or knowledge transfer, the study examines these processes through qualitative data, which allows for greater attention to lived experience, relational dynamics, and contextual specificity. The findings are thus not presented as generalizable to all households, but as empirically grounded insights into mechanisms and meanings that may otherwise remain obscured.

The study was conducted with careful attention to research ethics. Participants were informed of the purpose of the research, the voluntary nature of their participation, and their right to decline questions or withdraw at any time. Given the sensitivity of migration, remittances, household economies, and environmental vulnerability in the Cuban context, anonymity and confidentiality were prioritized throughout the research process. Identifying details have been removed or altered, and data were stored securely. Fieldwork interactions were conducted with attention to participants' comfort, privacy, and safety, particularly when discussing personal mobility trajectories, economic hardship, and family networks abroad.

3.2.1 Data gathering methods

Data were gathered through a combination of semi-structured interviews, ethnographic methods, walkalong interviews and focus groups, supplemented by photo-elicitation exercises.

The combination of semi-structured interviews, walkalong interviews, focus groups, and photo-elicitation was selected to capture different dimensions of adaptation and mobility-linked practices. Semi-structured interviews provided space for detailed household narratives, allowing participants to explain migration histories, remittance use, environmental concerns, and everyday coping strategies in their own terms. Walkalong interviews, following Kusenbach's (2003) “go-along” approach, were used to situate these narratives in place, enabling participants to connect memories, risks, and adaptive practices to specific coastal and peri-urban environments. Focus groups complemented individual and mobile methods by generating collective reflection and comparison among participants, particularly around shared perceptions of climate change, household resilience, and the role of translocal networks. Photo-elicitation was included to support memory work and discussion of environmental change over time, using visual references to make gradual or past transformations more tangible. Together, these methods enabled triangulation across individual accounts, embodied spatial experience, and collective interpretation.

Semi-structured interviews conducted in Spanish with the 21 households followed a guide organized into five thematic blocks: (1) household composition and socio-demographic background; (2) employment and educational trajectories; (3) migration and mobility histories; (4) transnational and translocal connections (remittances, information flows, care practices); and (5) perceptions of and responses to environmental change. Interviews lasted between 45 min and 2 h and were conducted in participants' homes or familiar community spaces to encourage dialogue. Owing to the political sensitivity of topics such as remittance use and local governance, audio recording was deliberately avoided. Instead, detailed contemporaneous notes were taken and expanded immediately after each encounter. Participants' names and identifying details were anonymized. Informed consent was secured verbally before each encounter, in accordance with local expectations and participants' comfort levels. Given the Cuban political context, confidentiality and anonymity were paramount. A reflective field diary documented researcher positionality, emotional responses, and the negotiation of trust, following best practices in reflexive ethnography (Clifford and Marcus, 1986; Hammersley and Atkinson, 2019).

Ethnographic methodology, understood as sustained immersion in everyday contexts to apprehend the social meanings of action and interaction, was implemented (Hammersley and Atkinson, 2019). In this study, ethnography was operationalized through participant observation and ethnographic encounters. The researcher participated in daily routines such as shared meals, neighborhood walks, informal gatherings, and household activities, with a small core of interlocutors.

Walkalong interviews (Kusenbach, 2003) were organized with participants previously interviewed. A total of 6 walkalongs were organized, three of which were individual walkalongs and three were walkalongs with three people each. Walkalongs invited participants to narrate their experiences while moving through familiar environments, linking memory and spatial practice. The three “collective” walkalongs were followed by focus groups that allowed participants to discuss different experiences and elements that emerged from the walking experience. The focus groups facilitated collective reflection on climate change perceptions and experiences, adaptation strategies, remittance use, and the role of translocal networks in sampled household resilience. Photo-elicitation further stimulated discussion of past environmental changes, allowing participants to anchor recollections in material and visual references. This methodological triangulation enabled both horizontal breadth (shared households' discourses) and vertical depth (individual narratives).

To contextualize household data, three expert interviews were conducted with an official from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Medio Ambiente (CITMA) involved in implementing the Tarea Vida climate adaptation plan; a biologist from the Centro de Investigaciones Marinas, University of Havana, who provided insights into coastal geomorphological change; and a local historian affiliated with the community museum, who contributed to reconstructing socio-economic transformations of the study area. These perspectives offered essential institutional and scientific framing for the community-level findings.

3.2.2 Data analysis

Data analysis followed a thematic analysis approach (Kabir, 2024) grounded in iterative reading and constant comparison. Field notes on interviews, individual and collective walkalongs and focus groups were manually coded using both deductive and inductive strategies (Braun and Clarke, 2021). Post-fieldwork digital follow-up was also incorporated into the analysis via coding.

Coding combined deductive and inductive strategies. Deductive codes were derived from the theoretical framework and included concepts such as mobility as adaptation, translocality, self-directed climate-related residential mobility and relocation. Inductive codes emerged from participants' own narratives and captured recurring themes such as waiting, hope, care, distrust, and sacrifice—dimensions of adaptation that do not always surface through top-down categorization alone.

These codes were first organized into six thematic clusters reflecting the study's first objective: structural adaptation through mobility-linked resources; state-led relocation; self-directed climate-related residential mobility; preparedness; remittances as informal insurance and immediate relief; and translocal networks of exchange and care. A cross-cutting analysis then addressed the second objective by synthesizing the six clusters into three broader analytical categories: (1) labor migration as a strategy of income diversification and risk spreading, including remittances as investment; (2) social remittances and non-material returns; and (3) risk-sharing mechanisms through social networks and translocality.

4 Results

Climate and environmental stress constitute the central context through which these strategies emerge and acquire meaning. In the study site, recurring hurricanes, flooding, coastal erosion, salinization, and housing deterioration shape the everyday conditions in which households make decisions about repair, self-directed climate-related residential mobility, income diversification, and risk management. The adaptation strategies discussed below should therefore not be understood as responses to economic hardship alone, but as practices developed at the intersection of environmental exposure, infrastructural vulnerability, and limited institutional support. Climate-related risks affect both the material needs of households, such as reinforcing roofs, elevating homes, or securing emergency resources, and the social organization of support, including the activation of translocal networks before, during, and after disruptive events. In this sense, climate and environmental change provide the underlying pressures that make mobility, remittances, and social networks central to household adaptation.

As outlined in the methodology, this study proposes a typology of observed coping and adaptation practices among sampled households in the study site and then explores how each of these practices unfolds through translocal networks. This two-step analytical structure reflects a core finding of the study: adaptation and coping practices identified in the typology can be traced back to strategies that unfold, at least in part, through translocal networks. The typology and the translocal analysis are therefore not parallel exercises but nested ones, where observed practices at the household level are shown to be constituted and sustained by mobilities, flows, and relationships that extend well beyond the study site.

The results directly reflect the outcome of this two-step analysis and are therefore organized around the three analytical axes previously developed: (1) labor migration as a strategy of income diversification and risk spreading; (2) social remittances and non-material returns; and (3) risk-sharing mechanisms through social networks and translocality.

In this paper, the most revealing excerpts of field notes are used as illustrations to support the findings.

4.1 Labor migration as an income diversification and risk-spreading strategy

A first central dimension emerging from the empirical material is the role of labor migration as a household strategy for income diversification and risk spreading. Among selected households, remittances play a key role in shaping households' adaptive capacities, even if these flows are irregular and often depend on informal delivery channels such as personal visits or intermediaries known as mulas.

In this sense, mobility is a way of securing resources that can later be strategically mobilized in contexts of environmental and economic uncertainty. This is especially visible in the use of remittances for structural adaptation. Regular exposure to hurricanes, flooding, and coastal erosion has led many households to reinforce their homes through more durable materials, roof and window repairs, or the construction of elevated structures. While some state support exists, it is often delayed, conditional, or mistrusted, particularly when assistance is tied to relocation policies under the Tarea Vida National Plan.

In this context, remittances function as a crucial source of autonomy, allowing households to undertake repairs independently and avoid forms of state intervention perceived as counterproductive.

During a walk-along, Louisa took me to a nearby field parcel where two sisters, friends of hers, had begun constructing a new “elevated” home in their backyard, after experiencing repeated flooding in their current home. The sisters explained that the project was made possible through regular remittances sent by their brother living in Florida, who also returns regularly to oversee the progress of the construction.

Remittances also support individual departure initiatives. While state-led relocation is formally presented as an adaptation strategy in high-risk coastal zones through the Tarea Vida National Plan, interviewees often described it as slow, socially disruptive, and poorly aligned with everyday needs. State-assigned housing could be located far from workplaces, schools, or family networks, making official relocation unattractive or unsustainable. By contrast, remittances enabled some households to pursue independent forms of relocation by purchasing land, paying rent, or improving housing conditions in safer areas. In this way, migration-generated income supports not only recovery, but also anticipatory adaptation.

This dimension is also evident in the function of remittances as a form of informal insurance or immediate relief. In a context of economic fragility, remittances are not always invested in structural adaptation projects but are often set aside, when possible, to cover unexpected expenses after hurricanes, flooding, or other disruptions. Such transfers may be mobilized rapidly to pay for repairs, temporary displacement, or medical needs. Even when not regular, they provide an important reserve that helps households absorb shocks.

Louisa's daughter, for instance, brings her annual savings during visits to support household needs and ongoing home repairs. As Janeysi noted, while she rarely receives regular remittances, she has obtained emergency support after disasters, typically borrowed funds, to cover immediate recovery needs.

Taken together, these findings suggest that labor migration can be understood as a household-level strategy of income diversification that extends beyond everyday subsistence. Remittances support a range of adaptation and coping practices, from house reinforcement and relocation to financial buffering after disasters. At the same time, their uneven and irregular flow means that access to this strategy is differentiated and dependent on the strength of translocal ties.

4.2 Social remittances and non-material returns

A second dimension concerns the circulation of non-material resources through mobility, including knowledge, advice, emotional support, and practical guidance. If financial remittances are central to adaptation, the empirical material also shows that mobility generates forms of social remittances that shape households' ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from environmental stress.

This is particularly visible in relation to preparedness. While Cuba has a strong state-led disaster preparedness system, participants also described precautionary measures undertaken at the household level, such as securing roofs, storing food and water, or anticipating possible disruptions ahead of hurricane seasons. In this domain, family members abroad contribute not only financially but informationally. Through regular communication, they share updates on approaching weather events, discuss possible responses, and provide advice based on access to international media or experiences. Preparedness therefore emerges not simply as a local or state-based practice, but also as one partly sustained through translocal information flows.

Social remittances are equally important in everyday forms of exchange and care. Relatives abroad remain involved in household life through calls, messages, visits, and ongoing participation in decisions related to repairs, health, or administrative matters. These non-material returns accompany and sometimes precede monetary transfers, showing that adaptation and coping are not only enabled by money, but also by sustained relational engagement.

Louisa's daughter, for instance, not only tries to visit her mother once or twice a year, but regularly communicates with her mother, advising her on repairs, health issues, and administrative procedures, demonstrating how immaterial support accompanies material assistance.

Such support intensifies during and after climate-related events. Emotional reassurance, rapid contact, and practical guidance all contribute to crisis response and recovery. These forms of non-material return are particularly important in contexts where households face uncertainty, institutional mistrust, or limited material resources. They provide continuity, orientation, and emotional stability in moments of disruption.

The empirical material also shows that social remittances contribute to longer-term adaptation processes. In the case of the two sisters building a new house, their brother's role was not limited to sending money. His periodic visits, oversight, and encouragement formed part of the project itself, showing how adaptation and coping can be sustained through moral support and translocal involvement over time.

This dimension therefore highlights that the returns of migration are not reducible to financial flows alone. Mobility also produces immaterial resources that shape preparedness, decision-making, emotional resilience, and the continuity of adaptation and coping efforts.

4.3 Risk-sharing mechanisms through social networks and translocality

A third dimension concerns the role of social networks and translocality as mechanisms of risk-sharing. Households do not face climate stress in isolation; rather, they rely on a wider relational infrastructure made up of kin, extended family, and contacts across different places. Through these networks, risk is distributed, support is mobilized, and adaptation becomes a collective rather than purely individual or household-based process.

This is evident in the role of translocal networks of exchange and care, which provide support before, during, and after environmental shocks. Through phone calls, WhatsApp messages, visits, and emergency transfers, relatives abroad remain available as a support system that can be activated in times of stress. These networks do not only provide direct assistance; they also create a sense of relational security that stabilizes everyday life and enables households to navigate uncertainty.

As described by Janeysi, even relatives who rarely send remittances reached out after past disasters, offering comfort and mobilizing borrowed funds to cover urgent needs. Such moments highlight the rapid activation of translocal care when households face acute stress.

Risk-sharing also appears in insurance and immediate relief practices, especially when households cannot rely on regular income or formal support systems. In these cases, assistance may come through pooled family resources, borrowed money, or the temporary activation of dormant ties. This shows that translocality operates as a social safety net, albeit an uneven one, accessible primarily to those with active networks abroad.

The same logic is visible in relocation strategies. State-led relocation often failed to account for the social embeddedness of households, especially their dependence on nearby family members for childcare, emotional support, and daily subsistence. When official relocation interrupted these networks, it often produced new vulnerabilities and, in some cases, eventual return to risk-prone areas. By contrast, self-directed climate-related residential mobility strategies supported through family networks tended to be more viable because they remained connected to existing social infrastructures.

Daine described how her mother relocated after a tornado destroyed her home in Municipalidad Casablanca, was assigned housing 2 h away by public transport. The move disrupted her work routines, childcare arrangements, and access to relatives, leading her to eventually move in with her sister near her original neighborhood.

Ánita, a woman in her sixties, recounted living with her family on the coastal frontline until the 2005 hurricane Wilma destroyed their home. After being moved to a deteriorated hostel where her ill father later passed away, the family remained in temporary accommodation for nearly 15 years, ultimately resettling within the field site with financial support from her brother in Florida.

These examples show that adaptation cannot be understood only in relation to physical exposure or financial capacity. The viability of an adaptation and coping strategies also depends on whether it preserves or disrupts social ties. In that sense, translocal networks are not simply supplementary resources; they are central mechanisms through which households distribute risk, organize support, and sustain adaptation over time.

5 Discussion

This study examined mobility-linked adaptation and coping strategies from the perspective of 21 sampled origin-area households in a climate-exposed peri-urban coastal site in Havana. Building on a relational understanding of mobility and immobility, and on a translocal perspective on adaptation, the findings show that households cope and adapt through physical movement, relocation or self-directed climate-related residential mobility, but also through the circulation of money, information, care, and obligations across space. Taken together, these findings support the argument that adaptation is not a discrete event but a processual and relational practice, shaped by the interplay of mobility, immobility and social embeddedness.

5.1 Summary of key findings

A first key finding is that labor migration contributes to adaptation less through migration per se than through the resources it makes available to households that remain in place. In line with the New Economics of Labor Migration (Stark and Bloom, 1985), the findings suggest that migration functions as a household-level strategy to diversify income and spread risk. Among the sampled households in the study site, remittances were mobilized for house reinforcement, elevated construction, self-directed climate-related residential mobility, emergency relief, and basic household reproduction. These uses confirm that remittances can support both short-term coping and longer-term adaptive investments, but they also show that the distinction between “productive” and “consumptive” uses is often analytically misleading. Spending on housing repairs, food, and health is central to maintaining everyday resilience under recurrent climate stress. This aligns with recent review evidence showing that financial remittances often support immediate stabilization, asset repair, and livelihood continuity, while their longer-term adaptive value depends on wider governance and market conditions (Ullah et al., 2025).

A second key finding is that the empirical material strongly supports the relevance of social remittances. Family members abroad did not only send money; they also shared information, practical advice, encouragement, and emotional support. These non-material contributions were especially visible in preparedness, household decision-making, and longer-term rebuilding processes. This confirms that adaptation is not only shaped by financial transfers but also by the circulation of knowledge, skills, affect, and social influence (Levitt and Lamba-Nieves, 2011; Entzinger and Scholten, 2022). Recent review work notes that social remittances remain underexplored compared with financial remittances, despite their importance for risk awareness, skills, networks, and collective adjustment (Sakdapolrak and Diniega, 2025).

A third key finding is that adaptation is also shaped by translocal social networks as risk-sharing mechanisms. Support from relatives abroad was not limited to regular remittances; it also included emergency assistance, borrowed funds, communication during disasters, and relational involvement in long-term projects such as house construction or relocation and self-directed climate-related residential mobility. In this sense, households did not cope with climate risks as isolated domestic units but as nodes within wider translocal social fields. This finding resonates with translocal resilience scholarship showing that migration reshapes adaptation through flows of money, ideas, advice, and care, while also redistributing labor and obligations within households and communities (Greiner and Sakdapolrak, 2013; Rockenbauch et al., 2019; Sakdapolrak et al., 2024). Recent work similarly emphasizes that remittances and translocal flows of social and human resources are embedded in changing social relations, and may alter authority, labor burdens, and access to support in uneven ways (Leder, 2024).

Finally, the findings show that mobility-linked adaptation is deeply conditioned by state action and institutional context. State-led relocation was formally designed as a protective adaptation measure, yet participants often described it as socially disruptive and poorly aligned with everyday needs. Relocation sites could sever access to jobs, schools, childcare, and kin networks, thereby producing new vulnerabilities. By contrast, self-directed climate-related residential mobility supported through remittances and family networks tended to be more viable because it allowed households to remain socially embedded. This reinforces the argument that adaptation and coping cannot be assessed only in terms of physical exposure reduction; it must also be evaluated in relation to social reproduction, attachment, and the maintenance of support infrastructures. Recent work on climate (im)mobilities likewise argues for dynamic, relational, and agent-centered approaches that account for the lived consequences of both moving and staying (Tschakert and Neef, 2022).

The following Table 1 maps the six observed adaptation and coping practices identified among sampled households: structural adaptation, state-led relocation, self-directed climate-related residential mobility, preparedness, informal insurance and immediate relief, and translocal exchange and care, against the three analytical axes through which mobility-linked strategies operate: financial remittances as income diversification and risk spreading, social remittances and non-material returns, and risk-sharing through social networks and translocality. For each practice, the table indicates the relative presence and role of each dimension and synthesizes the key finding in a concluding column.

Read across the rows, the table shows that no observed practice is driven by a single mechanism. Financial remittances are strongly present in structural adaptation, self-directed climate-related residential mobility, and as informal insurance. Social remittances are most central to preparedness and exchange and care, where information flows, emotional support, and practical guidance are highly transversal. Translocal networks are particularly visible in relocation, where the disruption of kin and care networks by state-led relocation produced new vulnerabilities rather than reducing them. Read down the columns, a consistent pattern emerges: adaptation in this setting is never purely material or purely relational, but always both.

5.2 Comparison with previous studies

The findings are broadly consistent with literature showing that migration can function as adaptation by diversifying livelihoods and enabling risk distribution across space (Warner, 2009; Adger et al., 2018; Afifi et al., 2016; Boas et al., 2022). However, this study adds nuance to that literature in three ways.

First, much of the existing literature on the migration-adaptation nexus has focused on rural and agrarian households, especially where climatic variability affects crop yields, labor demand, and seasonal migration (Tacoli, 2011; Maharjan et al., 2020; Simelton et al., 2021). The findings of this study support the importance of those mechanisms, but they also extend them into a peri-urban coastal setting, where the main adaptive uses of mobility-linked resources are not agricultural inputs or seasonal labor circulation, but housing reinforcement, local relocation, emergency support, and everyday household maintenance.

Second, the study's findings help refine the literature on remittances in the adaptation finance literature. The findings show that in a context marked by housing precarity, inflation, informal transfer channels, and mistrust toward state support, remittances are often directed toward what might otherwise be dismissed as ordinary domestic expenditures: roofing, repairs, temporary accommodation, medicine, food, and basic goods. These findings suggest that those expenditures should be understood as part of the material basis of adaptation. This interpretation is supported by recent systematic review evidence showing that remittance-supported resilience frequently operates through consumption smoothing, housing upgrades, and asset repair, not only through overtly transformative investments (Ullah et al., 2025).

Third, the study confirms calls to pay greater attention to social remittances and relational dimensions of adaptation. While several authors have emphasized that migrants transfer not only money but also ideas, knowledge, practices, and norms (Levitt and Lamba-Nieves, 2011; Scheffran et al., 2012; Entzinger and Scholten, 2022), this dimension remains less empirically developed in climate adaptation research. The findings here show that information sharing, advice on repairs, emotional reassurance, and sustained encouragement are not secondary to adaptation; they are constitutive of it. This matches recent review work arguing that social remittances in the climate context deserve much more explicit analytical attention (Sakdapolrak and Diniega, 2025).

At the same time, the findings also support scholarship cautioning against overly optimistic readings of mobility-linked adaptation. As suggested by Adger et al. (2014); de Haas (2010); Rockenbauch et al. (2019); Pandey et al. (2022); Szaboova et al. (2023) the adaptive benefits of remittances and translocal ties are neither automatic nor evenly distributed. In this study, support was often irregular, mediated through informal channels, and dependent on the continued capacity and willingness of relatives abroad. Not all households had equal access to such networks, and even among those who did, support could be borrowed, delayed, or insufficient. Recent reviews similarly identify dependency risks, unequal access by gender and income, and institutional volatility as important constraints on remittance-based resilience (Ullah et al., 2025).

The findings also speak to recent work on state-led planned relocation and climate (im)mobilities. Existing literature increasingly recognizes that departure may reduce hazard exposure while generating losses in livelihoods, sociality, place attachment, and cultural meaning (Marter-Kenyon, 2020). Recent scholarship stresses that relocation outcomes depend not only on safety, but on whether the process preserves the relational and place-based dimensions of home (Cuaton et al., 2026). This study's findings are consistent with this argument: state-led relocation reduced physical risk for some households but often undermined work routines, caregiving arrangements, and kin-based support systems. In this sense, what appears as adaptation and coping from a territorial planning perspective may be experienced as maladaptive from the perspective of everyday social reproduction.

5.3 Larger implications for the mobility-adaptation nexus

This series of findings have three broader implications for research on climate adaptation and mobility.

Conceptually, the results support approaches that treat mobility and immobility as relational and overlapping rather than oppositional (Zickgraf, 2022; Everuss, 2023). Sampled households coped and adapted not only through departure or relocation, but also through staying connected, receiving support, preparing remotely, and maintaining multi-sited forms of livelihood and care. Mobility mattered precisely because it enabled forms of strategic staying. This is consistent with work arguing that movement, communication, and emplacement are co-produced through unequal regimes of mobility rather than best understood as separate outcomes (Tschakert and Neef, 2022).

The second is methodological and empirical. The focus was not on migrants' experience and their trajectories but on how mobility produced circulations of resources, obligations, advice, and affect that shaped the capacities of those who remained. This reinforces arguments for moving beyond event-based understandings of migration toward household, network, and translocal approaches (Greiner and Sakdapolrak, 2013; Boas et al., 2022; Sakdapolrak et al., 2024). It also responds to recent calls for more context-sensitive and multi-scalar climate mobility research (Letta et al., 2024).

The third is policy-related. If remittances and translocal ties are already functioning as de facto adaptation and coping infrastructure, then policy should not assume that households can continue to absorb climate risk privately and indefinitely (Felli and Castree, 2012). Recent review work argues that remittance-supported resilience is strongest when embedded in supportive governance arrangements, rather than substituted for them (Ullah et al., 2025). The findings point to the need for stronger local governance, more socially embedded relocation planning, and adaptation support that complements rather than displaces household strategies. Informal and family-based systems can enhance resilience, but they are fragile, uneven, and insufficient as a substitute for public action.

6 Conclusion

This study argues that mobility-linked adaptation emerges through a relational assemblage of remittances, information, care, and obligations circulating across space through translocal social fields that shape the capacities of households that remain in place. Among the selected households in the study site, a climate-exposed peri-urban coastal settlement in Havana, moving and staying are not opposites: they are co-produced through ongoing connections between those who leave and those who do not. Climate and environmental stress constitute more than a contextual backdrop: they are the pressures through which household decisions about repair, relocation, income diversification, and risk management acquire adaptive meaning. In this setting, moving and staying are not opposites; they are co-produced through ongoing connections between those who leave and those who do not.

Three supporting dimensions substantiated this argument. First, labor migration functions as a household-level strategy of income diversification and risk spreading: remittances financed house reinforcement, elevated construction, independent relocation, and emergency relief, serving as both anticipatory investment and informal insurance after disasters. Second, non-material returns such as information shared by relatives abroad, practical advice on repairs, emotional reassurance during crises, and sustained moral encouragement throughout long rebuilding processes, proved equally constitutive of adaptation. Social remittances shaped preparedness, decision-making, and resilience in ways that financial flows alone cannot account for. Third, translocal social networks functioned as risk-sharing mechanisms, distributing support before, during, and after climate events through a relational infrastructure of kin, care, and obligation that transcended place. Together, these three dimensions show that adaptation in this setting is simultaneously material, relational, and social, and that it operates through the maintenance of translocal ties as much as through any individual act of movement or investment.

Analytically, this study challenges framings that equate adaptation with either physical relocation or overtly productive investment. In the context of housing precarity, economic fragility, and institutional mistrust, spending remittances on roof repairs, medicine, or temporary accommodation is not residual consumption, it is, the material basis of everyday resilience. Thus, the study also extends mobility-adaptation research beyond its dominant rural and agrarian focus, demonstrating that translocal adaptation dynamics are equally present, and equally consequential, in peri-urban coastal contexts.

There are several limitations that should be acknowledged in this study. First, the study is based on a qualitative and site-specific sample, which does not allow broad generalization. Its contribution is analytical rather than statistically representative. Second, the analysis privileges the perspective of households in the place of origin; it says less about migrants' own constraints, precarity, or decision-making abroad, even though these shape the support they can provide. Third, because the study captures practices at a particular moment, it cannot fully assess how durable these strategies are over time, especially under worsening climate pressures and economic instability. Finally, access to translocal support was uneven, which means the findings should not be read as evidence that mobility-linked adaptation is available to all households in similar ways. This latter point engages an important reflection when discussing the mobility-adaptation nexus, as it reframes for whom and under which conditions coping and adaptation are possible. Translocal support systems can be fragile, uneven, and dependent on the continued capacity of relatives abroad who face their own precariousness. Access to translocal support was differentiated across the sampled households, and the findings should not be read as evidence that mobility-linked adaptation is universally available.

Ultimately, this study argues for a more relational and grounded understanding of climate adaptation. Several questions remain open for future research. How stable are translocal support systems as climate pressures intensify and migrants themselves face growing economic and legal precariousness? And under what conditions can governance frameworks build on, rather than displace, the relational infrastructures that households have quietly constructed? Future work that explores these questions would deepen understanding of what just and effective adaptation looks like when seen from within the homes and networks of those who remain. Translocal ties may enhance resilience, but only contingently and unevenly: they are not substitutes for public action, but socially differentiated resources whose value depends on supportive institutions, affordable transfer systems, and relocation policies that preserve social embeddedness rather than sever it.

References

• 1

  AdamsH. (2016). Why populations persist: mobility, place attachment and climate change. Popul. Environ.37, 429–448. doi: 10.1007/s11111-015-0246-3

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar
  • View reference in article

• 2

  AdgerW.Safra de CamposR.MortreuxC. (2018). “Mobility, displacement and migration, and their interactions with vulnerability and adaptation to environmental risks,” in Routledge Handbook of Environmental Displacement and Migration (London; New York, NY: Routledge). doi: 10.4324/9781315638843-3

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar
  • View reference in article

• 3

  AdgerW. N.PulhinJ. M.BarnettJ.DabelkoG. D.HovelsrudG. K.LevyM.et al. (2014). “Human Security,” in Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects, ed. C. B. Field V. R. Barros, D. J. Dokken, K. J. Mach, M. D. Mastrandrea, T. E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K. L. Ebi, Y. O. Estrada, R. C. Genova, B. Girma, E. S. Kissel, A. N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P. R. Mastrandrea, and L. L. White (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press).

  • Google Scholar
  • View reference in article

• 4

  AfifiT.MilanA.EtzoldB.SchravenC.et al. (2016). Human mobility in response to rainfall variability: opportunities for migration as a successful adaptation strategy in eight case studies. Migr. Dev.5, 254–274. doi: 10.1080/21632324.2015.1022974

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar
  • View reference in article

• 5

  Albizu-CamposJ. C. (2025). Cuba: Demographic or Systemic Crisis?. Columbia Law School – Cuba Capacity Building Project. Available online at: https://horizontecubano.law.columbia.edu/news/cuba-demographic-or-systemic-crisis

  • Google Scholar
  • View reference in article

• 6

  AskarovZ.DoucouliagosH. (2020). A meta-analysis of the effects of remittances on household education expenditure. World Dev.129:104860. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.104860

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar
  • View reference in article

• 7

  BahamondeT. L. (2023). La precariedad del trabajo en Cuba: un acercamiento Horizonte Cubano, Columbia Law School. Available online at: https://horizontecubano.law.columbia.edu/news/la-precariedad-del-trabajo-en-cuba-un-acercamiento

  • Google Scholar

• 8

  BahamondeT. L. (2025). An Approach to Poverty in Cuba. Horizonte Cubano, Columbia Law School. Available online at: https://horizontecubano.law.columbia.edu/news/approach-poverty-cuba#!#_ednref22

  • Google Scholar
  • View reference in article

• 9

  BankW. (2024). Personal Remittances, Received (Current US$). Available online at: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.TRF.PWKR.CD.DT

  • Google Scholar
  • View reference in article

• 10

  BardsleyD. K.HugoG. J. (2010). Migration and climate change: examining thresholds of change to guide effective adaptation decision-making. Popul. Environ.32, 238–262. doi: 10.1007/s11111-010-0126-9

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar
  • View reference in article

• 11

  BarnettJ.WatersE. (2016). “Rethinking the vulnerability of small island states: climate change and development in the Pacific Islands,” in The Palgrave Handbook of International Development, eds. J. Grugel and D. Hammett (London: Palgrave Macmillan), 731–748. doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-42724-3_40

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar
  • View reference in article

• 12

  BernasconiC. (2025). Navigating the (Im)mobility–adaptation nexus in the context of climate and environmental change: a typological discussion. Climate13:6. doi: 10.3390/cli13010006

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar
  • View reference in article

• 13

  BetzoldC. (2015). Adapting to climate change in small island developing states. Clim. Change133, 481–489. doi: 10.1007/s10584-015-1408-0

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar
  • View reference in article

• 14

  BoardA. F. (2012). Proposal for Cuba: Reduction of Vulnerability to Coastal Flooding through Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in the South of Artemisa and Mayabeque Provinces. Bonn, Germany: Adaptation Fund Board.

  • Google Scholar
  • View reference in article

• 15

  BoasI. (2017). Environmental change and human mobility in the digital age. Geoforum85, 153–156. doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.07.022

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 16

  BoasI.WiegelH.FarbotkoC.WarnerJ.ShellerM. (2022). Climate mobilities: migration, im/mobilities and mobility regimes in a changing climate. J. Ethnic Migr. Stud. 48, 3365–3379. doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2022.2066264

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 17

  BowerE.WeerasingheS. (2021). Leaving Place, Restoring Home: Enhancing the Evidence Base on Planned Relocation Cases in the Context of Hazards, Disasters, and Climate Change. Geneva: Platform on Disaster Displacement and Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.

  • Google Scholar

• 18

  BrandtR.KaenzigR.LachmuthS. (2016). “Migration as a risk management strategy in the context of climate change: evidence from the Bolivian Andes,”in Migration, Risk Management and Climate Change: Evidence and Policy Responses. Global Migration Issues, eds A. Milan, B. Schraven, K. Warner, and N. Cascone (Cham: Springer), (Vol 6). doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-42922-9_3

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 19

  BraunV.ClarkeV. (2021). Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide. London: SAGE. doi: 10.4135/9781036232078.n9

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 20

  BrickellK.DattaA. (2011). “Introduction: translocal geographies,” in Translocal Geographies: Spaces, Places, Connections, eds. K. Brickell and A. Datta (Farnham: Ashgate), 3–20. doi: 10.1080/09654313.2012.651805

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 21

  BryanE.RinglerC.OkobaB.RoncoliC.et al. (2013). Adapting agriculture to climate change in Kenya: household strategies and determinants. J. Environ. Manage.114, 26–35. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.10.036

  • Pubmed Abstract
  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 22

  CarlingJ. (2002). Migration in the age of involuntary immobility: theoretical reflections and Cape Verdean experiences. J. Ethn. Migr. Stud.28, 5–42. doi: 10.1080/13691830120103912

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 23

  CarmanJ. P.ZintM. T. (2020). Defining and classifying personal and household climate change adaptation behaviors. Glob. Environ. Change61:102062. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102062

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 24

  Carrera DoralW.Landa BurgosE. (2020). Primer informe bienal de actualización a la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el cambio climático. Havana: CITMA.

  • Google Scholar

• 25

  ChettoR.MdemuM.KihilaJ. (2025). Migration dynamics of smallholder farmers in semi-arid rural areas: harnessing coping and adaptation strategies for climate change effects in Tanzania. GeoJournal90:63. doi: 10.1007/s10708-025-11314-8

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 26

  CITMA (2017). Enfrentamiento en al Cambio Climático la República de Cuba. Ministerio De Ciencia Tecnologia y Medio Ambiente. Available online at: https://www.tareavidacuba.cu/sites/default/files/Presentación%20Tarea%20Vida.pdf

  • Google Scholar

• 27

  CITMA (2022a). Cinco años de Tarea Vida (2017–2022): Mirada a un Futuro Resiliente. Ministerio de Ciencia Tecnología y Medio Ambiente de Cuba. Available online at: https://www.tareavida.cu/sites/default/files/2024-12/Cinco%20a%C3%B1os%20de%20la%20Tarea%20Vida%202017-2022.pdf

  • Google Scholar

• 28

  CITMA (2022b). Impactos del Cambio Climático en Cuba. Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnologia y Medio Ambiente. Available online at: https://www.tareavidacuba.cu/sites/default/files/impactos_del_cambio_climatico_0.pdf

  • Google Scholar

• 29

  CliffordJ.MarcusG. (1986). Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press

  • Google Scholar

• 30

  CuatonG. P.SeeJ.WebsterS. (2026). Climate-related planned relocation as domicide: the multi-dimensional destruction of home in the Philippines. Habitat Int.169:103710. doi: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.103710

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 31

  DalgasK. (2018). Translocal disaster interventions: the role of individual relief channels in Philippine disasters. J. Conting. Crisis Manag.26, 377–384. doi: 10.1111/1468-5973.12204

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 32

  DandyJ.HorwitzP.CampbellR.DrakeD.et al. (2019). Leaving home: place attachment and decisions to move in the face of environmental change. Reg. Environ. Change19, 615–620. doi: 10.1007/s10113-019-01463-1

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 33

  de HaasH. (2010). Migration and development: a theoretical perspective1. Int. Migr. Rev.44, 227–264. doi: 10.1111/j.1747-7379.2009.00804.x

  • Pubmed Abstract
  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 34

  EntzingerH.ScholtenP. (2016). Adapting to Climate Change through Migration. A Case Study of the Vietnamese Mekong River Delta, ed. IOM. Geneva: IOM.

  • Google Scholar

• 35

  EntzingerH.ScholtenP. (2022). The role of migration in enhancing resilience to climate change: how non-financial remittances through domestic migration corridors make the Vietnamese Mekong River Delta more resilient. Migr. Stud.10, 24–40. doi: 10.1093/migration/mnac006

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 36

  EverussL. (2023). Using mobilities theory to study the nexus between climate change and human movement. Austr. Geogr.54, 449–458. doi: 10.1080/00049182.2023.2205999

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 37

  FelliR.CastreeN. (2012). Neoliberalising adaptation to environmental change: foresight or foreclosure?Environ. Plann. A44, 1–4. doi: 10.1068/a44680

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 38

  FerrisE.RieraJ.WeerasingheS. (2015). Guidance on Protecting People from Disasters and Environmental Change through Planned Relocation. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, Georgetown University, and UNHCR.

  • Google Scholar

• 39

  GemenneF.BlocherJ. (2017). How can migration serve adaptation to climate change? Challenges to fleshing out a policy ideal. Geogr. J. 183, 1–12. doi: 10.1111/geoj.12205

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 40

  GioliG.KhanT.BishtS.ScheffranJ. (2014a). Migration as an adaptation strategy and its gendered implications: a case study from the upper Indus Basin. Mt. Res. Dev.34, 255–265. doi: 10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-13-00089.1

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 41

  GioliG.KhanT.ScheffranJ. (2014b). Climatic and environmental change in the Karakoram: making sense of community perceptions and adaptation strategies. Reg. Environ. Change14, 1151–1162. doi: 10.1007/s10113-013-0550-3

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 42

  GreinerC.SakdapolrakP. (2013). Translocality: concepts, applications and emerging research perspectives. Geogr. Compass7, 373–384. doi: 10.1111/gec3.12048

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 43

  HammersleyM. Atkinson P. (2019). Ethnography: Principles in Practice, 4th Edn. London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315146027

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 44

  HarrisJ. R.TodaroM. P. (1970). Migration, unemployment and development: a two-sector analysis. Am. Econ. Rev.60, 126–142.

  • Google Scholar

• 45

  HegerM.JulcaA.PaddisonO. (2008). Analysing the Impact of Natural Hazards in Small Economies. The Caribbean Case. Helsinki: The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research

  • Google Scholar

• 46

  IPCC (2022a). “Annex II: glossary,” In Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, eds. V. v. D. Möller, R. Matthews, J. B. R. Méndez, C. Semenov, J. S. Fuglestvedt, and A. Reisinger (Cambridge and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press).

  • Google Scholar

• 47

  IPCC (2022b). “Small Islands,” in Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, eds. M. Mycoo, M. Wairiu, D. Campbell, V. Duvat, Y. Golbuu, S. Maharaj, J. Nalau, P. Nunn, J. Pinnegar and O. Warrick (Cambridge and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press), 2043–2121. doi: 10.1017/9781009325844.017

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 48

  JhaaC.GuptaV.ChattopadhyayU.Amarayil SreeramanB. (2017). Migration as adaptation strategy to cope with climate change: a study of farmers' migration in rural India. Int. J. Clim. Change Strateg. Manage. 10. doi: 10.1108/IJCCSM-03-2017-0059

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 49

  KabirS. M. (2024). Thematic analysis: a practical guide. Pasaa Paritat J.39, 142–145. doi: 10.58837/CHULA.PPJ.39.8

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 50

  KelmanI.WestJ. (2009). Climate change and small Island developing states: a critical review. Ecol. Environ. Anthropol. 5.

  • Google Scholar

• 51

  KerrS. A. (2005). What is small island sustainable development about?Ocean Coast. Manage.48, 503–524. doi: 10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2005.03.010

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 52

  KoskaO. A.SayginP. Ö.ÇagatayS. Artal-Tur, A. (2013). International migration, remittances, and the human capital formation of Egyptian children. Int. Rev. Econom. Finance28, 38–50. doi: 10.1016/j.iref.2013.05.006

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 53

  KusenbachM. (2003). Street phenomenology. The go-along as ethnographic research tool. Ethnography4, 455–485. doi: 10.1177/146613810343007

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 54

  LederS. (2024). Translocal resource governance, social relations and aspirations: linking translocality and feminist political ecology to explore farmer-managed irrigation systems and migration in Nepal. Geoforum148:103905. doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103905

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 55

  LettaM.MontalbanoP.PaolantonioA. (2024). Understanding the climate change-migration nexus through the lens of household surveys: an empirical review to assess data gaps. J. Econ. Surv.38, 1234–1275. doi: 10.1111/joes.12584

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 56

  LevittP.Lamba-NievesD. (2011). Social remittances revisited. J. Ethn. Migr. Stud.37, 1–22. doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2011.521361

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 57

  LevittP.SchillerN. G. (2004). Conceptualizing simultaneity: a transnational social field perspective on society. Int. Migr. Rev.38, 1002–1039. doi: 10.1111/j.1747-7379.2004.tb00227.x

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 58

  LoweS. R.JoshiS.PietrzakR. H.GaleaS.et al. (2015). Mental health and general wellness in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Soc. Sci. Med.124, 162–170. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.11.032

  • Pubmed Abstract
  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 59

  MaharjanA.de CamposR. S.SinghC.DasS.et al. (2020). Migration and household adaptation in climate-sensitive hotspots in South Asia. Curr. Clim. Change Rep.6, 1–16. doi: 10.1007/s40641-020-00153-z

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 60

  MaharjanA.TuladharS.HussainA.MishraA.et al. (2021). Can labour migration help households adapt to climate change? Evidence from four river basins in South Asia. Clim. Dev.13, 879–894. doi: 10.1080/17565529.2020.1867044

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 61

  MallickB.PriovashiniC.SchanzeJ. (2023). “I can migrate, but why should I?”—voluntary non-migration despite creeping environmental risks. Humanit. Soc. Sci. Commun.10:34. doi: 10.1057/s41599-023-01516-1

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 62

  Marter-KenyonJ. (2020). Origins and functions of climate-related relocation: an analytical review. Anthropocene Rev.7, 159–188. doi: 10.1177/2053019620915633

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 63

  Massey D. (2005). For Space. London: Sage Publications.

  • Google Scholar

• 64

  McAdamJ.FerrisE. (2015). Planned relocations in the context of climatechange: unpacking the legal and conceptual issues. Camb. J. Int. Comp. Law4, 137–166. doi: 10.7574/cjicl.04.01.137

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 65

  MeyerS.StroehleC. (2025). “Remittances,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology Edition: 1, ed. M. Aldenderfer (New York, NY: Oxford Academic). doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.84

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 66

  MincerJ. (1978). Family migration decisions. J. Polit. Econ.86, 749–773. doi: 10.1086/260710

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 67

  MortreuxC.BarnettJ. (2009). Climate change, migration and adaptation in Funafuti, Tuvalu. Glob. Environ. Change19, 105–112. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.09.006

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 68

  Musah-SuruguI. J.AhenkanA.BawoleJ. N.DarkwahS. A. (2018). Migrants' remittances. A complementary source of financing adaptation to climate change at the local level in Ghana. Int. J. Clim. Change Strateg. Manage.10, 178–196. doi: 10.1108/IJCCSM-03-2017-0054

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 69

  MycooM.WairiuM.CampbellD.DuvatV.GolbuuY.MaharajS.et al. (2022). “Small Islands,” in Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (Cambridge; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press), 2043–2121.

  • Google Scholar

• 70

  Ng'ang'aS. K.BulteE. H.GillerK. E.McIntireJ. M.et al. (2016). Migration and self-protection against climate change: a case study of Samburu County, Kenya. World Dev.84, 55–68. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2016.04.002

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 71

  OrozcoM. (2024). Remittances to Cuba and the Marketplace in 2024. Washington, DC: Inter-American Dialogue.

  • Google Scholar

• 72

  PacomaA. J. U.DeldaJ. S. (2019). Social capital in the post-Haiyan setting: the role of local and translocal ties in building household resilience. Int. J. Disaster Risk Reduct.40:101250. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101250

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 73

  PaerregaardK. (2024). Adaptive migration: climate change, climate migration, and climate adaptation in Peru's highlands communities. Iberoam. Nord. J. Latin Am. Caribbean Stud. 53, 20–30. doi: 10.16993/iberoamericana.617

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 74

  PandaA.SharmaU.NinanK. N.PattA. (2013). Adaptive capacity contributing to improved agricultural productivity at the household level: empirical findings highlighting the importance of crop insurance. Glob. Environ. Change23, 782–790. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.03.002

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 75

  PandeyA.MishraR.SinghR. (2022). Social networks as providers of social protection to urban migrants in Delhi. Asian Pac. Migr. J.31, 426–453. doi: 10.1177/01171968231154660

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 76

  Pérez VillanuevaO. E. (2023). El costo de la vida en Cuba. Horizonte Cubano, Columbia Law School. Available online at: https://horizontecubano.law.columbia.edu/news/el-costo-de-la-vida-en-cuba

  • Google Scholar

• 77

  PetzoldJ.HawxwellT.JantkeK.Gonçalves GresseE.MirbachC.AjibadeI.et al. (2023). A global assessment of actors and their roles in climate change adaptation. Nat. Clim. Chang.13, 1250–1257. doi: 10.1038/s41558-023-01824-z

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 78

  RatterB. M. W. (2018). “Island vulnerability and resilience,” in Geography of Small Islands: Outposts of Globalisation, ed. B. M. W. Ratter (Cham: Springer International Publishing), 173–199. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-63869-0_6

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 79

  RobinsonS. A. (2017). Climate change adaptation trends in small island developing states. Mitig. Adapt. Strateg. Global Change22, 669–691. doi: 10.1007/s11027-015-9693-5

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 80

  RockenbauchT.SakdapolrakP.SterlyH. (2019). Beyond the local – Exploring the socio-spatial patterns of translocal network capital and its role in household resilience in Northeast Thailand. Geoforum107, 154–167. doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.09.009

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 81

  SakdapolrakP.DiniegaR. (2025). Social remittances and the environment in the context of climate change: what do we know? Where do we go?Clim. Dev. 17, 709–729. doi: 10.1080/17565529.2024.2449121

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 82

  SakdapolrakP.NaruchaikusolS.OberK.PethS.PorstL.RockenbauchT.et al. (2016). Migration in a changing climate. Towards a translocal social resilience approach. J. Geogr. Soc. Berl. 147, 81–94. doi: 10.12854/erde-147-6

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 83

  SakdapolrakP.PromburomP.ReifA. (2014). Why successful in situ adaptation with environmental stress does not prevent people from migrating? Empirical evidence from Northern Thailand. Clim. Dev.6, 38–45. doi: 10.1080/17565529.2013.826129

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 84

  SakdapolrakP.SterlyH.BorderonM.Bunchuay-PethS.NaruchaikusolS.OberK.et al. (2024). Translocal social resilience dimensions of migration as adaptation to environmental change. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA121:e2206185120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2206185120

  • Pubmed Abstract
  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 85

  ScheffranJ.MarmerE.SowP. (2012). Migration as a contribution to resilience and innovation in climate adaptation: Social networks and co-development in Northwest Africa. Appl. Geograp.33, 119–127. doi: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2011.10.002

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 86

  SchewelK. (2019). Understanding immobility: moving beyond the mobility bias in migration studies. Int. Migr. Rev.54:019791831983195. doi: 10.1177/0197918319831952

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 87

  SchillerN. G.BaschL.BlancC. S. (1995). From immigrant to transmigrant: theorizing transnational migration. Anthropol. Q.68, 48–63. doi: 10.2307/3317464

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 88

  SimeltonE.DuongT. M.HouzerE. (2021). When the “Strong Arms” leave the farms—migration, gender roles and risk reduction in Vietnam. Sustainability13:4081. doi: 10.3390/su13074081

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 89

  Sobczak-SzelcK.FekihN. (2020). Migration as one of several adaptation strategies for environmental limitations in Tunisia: evidence from El Faouar. Comp. Migr. Stud.8:8. doi: 10.1186/s40878-019-0163-1

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 90

  StarkO.BloomD. E. (1985). The new economics of labor migration. Am. Econ. Rev.75, 173–178.

  • Google Scholar

• 91

  SuY. (2022). Networks of recovery: remittances, social capital and post-disaster recovery in Tacloban City, Philippines. Int. J. Disaster Risk Reduct.67:102641. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102641

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 92

  SzaboovaL.AdgerW. N.Safra de CamposR.MaharjanA.et al. (2023). Evaluating migration as successful adaptation to climate change: trade-offs in well-being, equity, and sustainability. One Earth6, 620–631. doi: 10.1016/j.oneear.2023.05.009

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 93

  TacoliC. (2009). Crisis or adaptation? Migration and climate change in a context of high mobility. Environ. Urban. 21, 513–525. doi: 10.1177/0956247809342182

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 94

  TacoliC. (2011). Not Only Climate Change: Mobility, Vulnerability and Socio-economic Transformations in Environmentally Fragile Areas in Bolivia, Senegal and Tanzania. London: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

  • Google Scholar

• 95

  ThomasA.ShooyaO.RokitzkiM.BertrandM.LissnerT. (2019). Climate change adaptation planning in practice: insights from the Caribbean. Reg. Environ. Change19, 2013–2025. doi: 10.1007/s10113-019-01540-5

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 96

  TschakertP.NeefA. (2022). Tracking local and regional climate im/mobilities through a multidimensional lens. Reg. Environ. Change22:95. doi: 10.1007/s10113-022-01948-6

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 97

  UllahI.JoshiN. P.PiyaL. (2025). The role of remittances in building resilience through adaptive capacities amid environmental and socioeconomic vulnerabilities: a systematic literature review. Clim. Risk Manage.50:100769. doi: 10.1016/j.crm.2025.100769

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 98

  UNDP (2025). Human Developments Reports United Nations Development Program. Available online at: https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/documentation-and-downloads

  • Google Scholar

• 99

  UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) (2024). 2024 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI): Poverty amid conflict. New York, NY: UNDP.

  • Google Scholar

• 100

  UNICEF (2024). Child Food Poverty: Nutrition Deprivation in Early Childhood. Child Nutrition Report, 2024. New York: UNICEF.

  • Google Scholar

• 101

  VermaS.SudanF. K. (2021). Impact of climate change on marginal and small farmers' livelihood and their adaptation strategies-a review. Reg. Econom. Dev. Res., 96–112. doi: 10.37256/redr.222021896

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 102

  VezzoliS. (2023). Understanding aspirations to stay: relative endowment within a time–space perspective. Migr. Stud.11, 259–285. doi: 10.1093/migration/mnad007

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 103

  VikramK. (2021). Fathers' migration and academic achievement among left-behind children in India: evidence of continuity and change in gender preferences. Int. Migr. Rev.55, 964–998. doi: 10.1177/0197918321989279

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 104

  VincentK.CundillG. (2022). The evolution of empirical adaptation research in the global South from 2010 to 2020. Clim. Dev.14, 25–38. doi: 10.1080/17565529.2021.1877104

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 105

  WarnerK. (2009). Migration: climate adaptation or failure to adapt? Findings from a global comparative field study. IOP Conf. Ser. Earth Environ. Sci. 6. doi: 10.1088/1755-1307/6/56/562006

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 106

  WeirT.PittockJ. (2017). Human dimensions of environmental change in small island developing states: some common themes. Reg. Environ. Change17, 949–958. doi: 10.1007/s10113-017-1135-3

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 107

  YarinaL.WescoatJ. L. (2023). Spectrums of relocation: a typological framework for understanding risk-based relocation through space, time and power. Glob. Environm. Change79:102650. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102650

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar

• 108

  ZickgrafC. (2022). Relational (im)mobilities: a case study of Senegalese coastal fishing populations. J. Ethn. Migr. Stud.48, 1–18. doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2022.2066263

  • CrossRef
  • Google Scholar