https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211105134629.htm

Traditionally, research on climate change-related migration has taken a linear approach, concentrating on whether or not environmental stress is directly related to migration -- typically for one country or set of countries at a time. Researchers have known that social factors must also play a role, but studying both at a global scale, with all necessary information for all countries and sub-regions, has been a major challenge.

'Perhaps the most surprising finding from our study is that, when we look at the overall picture, social factors are more important than environmental factors in explaining migration. And regardless of the level of income involved, gross national income was the key factor in explaining net-migration in half of countries,' says Venla Niva, a doctoral student at Aalto University and lead author of the study published in Environmental Research Letters.