By using data from the first wave of the Tanzania National Panel survey (TZNPS)
conducted in 2008/2009, we aim to investigate the relationship between environment
and internal migration flows in Tanzania. In the TZNPS survey 16709 individuals
nested in 3265 households (and 126 districts) were asked to report the three heaviest
environmental shocks experienced in the last five years. We model the inter-regional
migration flows occurred in the five years before the time of the survey by assessing
the relative importance of socio-demographic and environmental determinants. The
main hypothesis is that inter-regional migrations are influenced by environmental
shocks at the origin and favorable environmental and socio-economic conditions at
the destination. First, we run logistic models with the aim to figure out the most
relevant individual predictors of migration. Second, we run Poisson regression
models to identify the most important directions and the distance of the migration
flows as well as the determinants of these spatial patterns in terms of push and pull
factors. Results show that environmental shocks are an important driving force of
inter-regional migration flows. However, other factors related to the individual’s
socio-demographic characteristics as well as to the socio-demographic conditions at
the origin and destination region do also play an important role.