Database of perceived cause-effect relations in migration aspirations and decisions

The following database of perceived cause-effect relations in migration decisions brings together insights in the form of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) from both sending and receiving sites in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Ghana. Collected as part of the H2020 EU-funded HABITABLE project under grant agreement No. 869395, this dataset was jointly collected and developed by partners from the University of Twente, Addis Ababa University, Samuel Hall, and the University of Ghana. See https://habitableproject.org for more information on the project. This dataset documents the role of perceptions of (changing) environmental and socioeconomic factors and how these have influenced migration decisions among rural households (sending location) and urban migrants (receiving location). The database consists of 320 translated, digitized, cleaned, and coded individual FCMs in the form of adjacency matrices. Data was collected between May 2022 – August 2023 as hand-drawn FCM networks in the following locations: Ethiopia (Adama/ Jima and Addis Ababa), Kenya (Kathyaka and Mombasa), and Ghana (Tolon and Tema, Accra). In each location, data was collected on local affected populations' perceptions of an array of drivers of migration, such as social, economic, political and environmental conditions (e.g. climatic variability and change, land degradation), in the sending and receiving areas in order to determine the relationship between migration, environmental change and other factors as perceived by those affected. The interview script developed for this study was framed around the question: “What caused you / your household member to decide to move?” This central question provided the basis for the development of the weighted causal networks (FCMs) of factors influencing the decision to migrate. Enumerators were provided with a script including the follow-up probing questions “What other reasons / causes / factors influenced the decision to move?” and “Was there a final trigger or event that influenced this decision?” The interview process began with the enumerators noting the concepts related by the respondent on paper, followed by a second part where the respondent was asked to draw directional relationships among these concepts and, finally, to give the relationships weighted values. This was explained in layman’s terms to the respondent. Finally, the respondent was asked to check the resulting FCM network and make any changes they deem appropriate. A more detailed description is provided in the metadata file "D2.1_FCM_database_descriptor_V3.pdf".