Gender, Natural Capital, and Migration in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes

Citation:

Gray, Clark L. 2010. “Gender, Natural Capital, and Migration in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes.” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 42 (3): 678–96.

Author: Clark L. Gray

Abstract:

This paper investigates the roles of gender and natural capital (defined as land and associated environmental services) in out-migration from a rural study area in the southern Ecuadorian Andes. Drawing on original household survey data, I construct and compare multivariate event history models of individual-level, household-level, and community-level influences on the migration of men and women. The results undermine common assumptions that landlessness and environmental degradation universally contribute to out-migration. Instead, men access land resources to facilitate international migration and women are less likely to depart from environmentally marginal communities relative to other areas. These results reflect a significantly gendered migration system in which natural capital plays an important but unexpected role.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Households, Land Tenure Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Ecuador

Year: 2010