A review of the relationship between environmental change and internal-human mobility

Abstract

Climate change is significantly influencing worldwide habitability and liveability, with profound implications for human mobility. Most people move within national borders, yet the effects of climate hazards remain insufficiently investigated and integrated into existing theoretical frameworks. This review examines quantitative peer-reviewed literature on climate hazard-internal mobility linkages, revealing key conceptual and empirical gaps in how mobility is defined, theorized, and modelled. The literature remains geographically uneven and predominantly micro-level, with stronger evidence for short-term weather shocks than for long-term climatic processes, while often failing to distinguish between voluntary and involuntary mobility or to account for agency and timing dimensions. Climate-mobility relationships are often conceptualized as contingent, meaning hazards are seen as altering opportunity structures, rather than being framed as hazard-driven, or reflecting mediated and constructed assumptions. This is also reflected in dominant theoretical approaches often conceptualizing mobility as a rational economic response, overlooking aspirations, capabilities, governance, and institutional dynamics. The literature further suggests that climate hazards operate across multiple scales and interact with a broad range of factors to shape mobility and immobility outcomes, posing particular attention to the agricultural, asset exposure and social network channels. Overall, compounding and cumulative risks, socio-ecological tipping points, and institutional and governance dynamics remain insufficiently explored.