Rural–urban migration of Alaska Indigenous peoples: changing patterns and drivers

Abstract

Migration from rural areas to urban population centers has long been associated with modernization; a pattern one might expect to accelerate as advancing climate change degrades rural land-based livelihoods. Does rural–urban migration of arctic Indigenous peoples follow a similar pattern? Has depopulation of rural arctic areas accelerated as climate-driven environmental change has intensified in the rapidly warming arctic? What are the main drivers of mobility, both historically and more recently? We address these questions through a review and synthesis of empirical studies of rural–urban migration of arctic Indigenous peoples using individual records over the past four decades, along with analysis of new data informed by those previous studies. The use of microdata allows us to incorporate variation in individual situations and choices as well as community characteristics that vary across space and time, permitting us to make inferences about factors associated with decisions to move. The evidence shows that rural–urban migration patterns appear largely to have persisted over the decades, but some drivers have changed. Living costs appear to have replaced livelihood opportunities as the dominant driver since 2000. Other changes in decisions to move are complex, and require additional research to understand.