Focus of the Report

“traditional” sector—such as subsistence farming—to “modern” sectors such as manufacturing and services. The internal migration of workers to urban areas, in particular, is a recurring theme in modern theories of development. Even today, a great majority of people migrate internally, with almost three times as many people migrating within countries than internationally (McAuliffe and Ruhs 2017). Resources such as water often play a critical role in the decision to move (box 1.1).

From the earliest days, rains, rivers, coasts, and seas have shaped the spatial distribution of economic activity (Amrith 2018) (box 1.2). Tales from classical antiquity to the Abrahamic religions to ancient Mesopotamia speak of how water has reshaped societies. More fundamentally, water has the potential to influence the process of economic transformation by impacting movement and migration. The availability of water can have a large effect on where people choose to live and work and the skills they carry. In turn, the regions where people settle require access to adequate water resources—accompanied by commensurate infrastructure investments— to sustain growth and allow populations to survive and thrive. Ebb and Flow: Volume 1 presents new evidence on some of these foundational development issues to examine the nexus where water, migration decisions, and economic development converge.

The focus of this report is not meant to be exhaustive in relation to the water and migration nexus. The issues related to the impacts of water on mobility are wide ranging, with endless ramifications and enormous knowledge gaps. Addressing all of these challenges is beyond the scope of the report. Instead, the primary, though not exclusive, focus of the report is to examine the role of fluctuations in water availability, or “water shocks,” in influencing three critical questions (figure 1.1):

1. Why and in what context do water shocks influence migration and

development? This report, for the first time, attempts to take a global view of the link between water, migration, and development. It finds that there are important nuances to the idea of a “water migrant” that have critical implications for designing policies to make communities more resilient.

2. Who migrates because of water shocks and what does this mean

for productivity and livelihoods? To examine these factors, the report zooms in on the characteristics of internal migrants, including those who may migrate involuntarily.