What Can the 1930s Tell Us about the Coming Climate Migration?

Climate change appears set to kick off a massive human upheaval as changing sea levels, weather patterns, and other forces alter the places we live. How will policy makers respond to this population movement? Who will be moving, how will they be received in their new homes, and what impact will they have there? For clues, we can look to an earlier period of migration: that of the 1930s Dust Bowl era in the United States. On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, we turn to the research of Booth’s Richard Hornbeck to understand how Dust Bowl migrants differed from other migrants of the time, and what that could tell us about migration induced by climate change in the 21st century.