Does emigration affect pro-environmental behaviour back home? A long-term, local-level perspective

Ivlevs, Artjoms

Abstract

This study provides novel evidence on the effects of emigration on pro-environmental behaviour back home. Focusing on the seven successor states of former Yugoslavia, I explore the relationship between people’s present-day pro-environmental action and the local-level intensity of a major guestworker emigration wave that occurred four decades earlier. I find that more intense local-level emigration is associated with a lower likelihood of pro-environmental action; the instrumental variable analysis supports the causal nature of this relationship. This finding supports the conjecture that emigration contributes to greater consumerism at home and therefore reduces pro-environmental behaviour. At the same time, controlling for the intensity of local-level emigration, a higher proportion of women in the local migrant population is associated with a greater likelihood of pro-environmental action. As women are generally more likely to undertake pro-environmental behaviour as well as transfer new norms and practices across borders, this finding supports the hypothesis that migration contributes to a cross-border transmission of pro-environmental norms and practices.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 10, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Aug 6, 2020
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Feb 17, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 13, 2021
• Journal: Kyklos
• Print ISSN: 0023-5962
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-6435
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 74
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 48-76
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.12257
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/5423680