Environmental migrants in Central America’ international migration flows

International migration patterns in Guatemala, Honduras and el Salvador (magnitude and composition of the flows, trends over time and space) are strongly associated with economic and conflict factors but the complex web of drivers also include the direct and indirect impacts of climate events (such as heat waves, droughts, hurricanes, flooding). Using data from a special module on environmental migration from the EMIF Sur 2019, this paper presents preliminary results of an ongoing research on characterizing environmental migrants in flows of migrants returned by Mexico and the United States to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The descriptive analysis includes three aspects: identifying environmental migrants in the sample, determining their sociodemographic characteristics, and establishing their geographic profile. First results indicate that the number of environmental migrants identified in the 2019 special module of the EMIF Sur is quite small, suggesting a limited contribution to shaping emigration flows. However, the geographic concentration in certain areas of origin would indicate that environmental migrants could be more relevant in shaping migration flows from specific areas within the countries. There is a mixed picture in terms of rural or urban origin of the migrants, with differences by country; similarities in age patterns across flows, pointing to the classical age selectivity of migration, and a small proportion of women. Next steps in the analysis include looking for differences and similarities between environmental and other-migrants, incorporating a larger number of EMIF Sur surveys.