Abstract
The current research aims to apply a comparative approach to the study of migration trajectories of people coming from Morocco, DR Congo, Somalia and Syria and now residing in Belgium. The central aim is to examine how environmental changes relate to and indirectly or directly impact the migration trajectories of the distinct migrant groups, living in Belgium. Environmental change is intertwined with other migration reasons, such as economic and political reasons, but there is still too little research into how this actually works. There is relatively little overlap between environmental studies relating migration and migration studies. Hardly any research has been done on the best methodological approach to study environmental migration. Finally, this research aims to explore in which way existing models and theories of migration aspirations and dynamics can be adopted to develop a theoretical framework and conceptual model on environmental migration and aims to fill in the different gaps in existing literature. The objectives of this research are challenging and innovative as they aim to examine the best conceptual and methodological approach to study environmentally induced migration aspirations that considers both environmental changes and prevailing migration dynamics. In doing so, respondents' perspectives on the ways in which environmental factors interplay and influence other migration reasons throughout their (fragmented) migration trajectories will be examined.
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