Conceptual Approach

In this chapter, I discuss the main concepts and the theories that guide this research on the impacts of migration from, and immobility in, areas affected by climate hazards. They include the applied approaches to climate impacts, related (im)mobilities, and their well-being effects. After discussing the strengths and limitations of key migration theories, I justify why the Aspirations-Capabilities Framework serves as a valuable foundation for understanding the various ways in which (im)mobilities emerge. Additionally, the Resource-Based Model developed by Ryan and colleagues provides a useful lens to identify key processes and mechanisms through which the impacts on migrants and stayers unfold. Such impacts are conceptualized through a well-being prism. Based on a review of prominent well-being concepts, this chapter defines well-being as how the needs that climate migrants or stayers prioritize are met (measures of objective well-being); how they evaluate their life situations cognitively and emotionally in the present; and how they look to the future (measures of subjective well-being). The chapter closes by specifying and justifying the indicators chosen to represent objective and subjective well-being and by comparing them to other existing approaches for measuring the impacts of (im)mobilities.