Paper short abstract:

Climate change mobility is common in Shashemene. In spite of its proximity, there is little movement of people to Hawasa industrial Park in search of jobs. This can be explained in terms of the long-established relation between the Arsi and the Sidama and ethnic-based federal political system.

Paper long abstract:

This study explores how the establishment of industrial parks in areas where climate change has resulted disruptive repercussions affects climate mobility. To this end, the Hawassa Industrial park, which is located in close proximity to Shashemene , is taken as a case study. The empirical data indicates that despite its close proximity that is about 20 km, the Hawassa Industrial park has failed to attract climate migrants from Shashemene. As the pattern of climate mobility in Shashemene shows that migrants prefer to travel to other nearby Oromo inhabited areas and to the Middle East than to the Hawassa industrial park which is located in the newly established Sidama Zone and dominated by Sidama ethnic group. This might be explained in terms of the long-established relationship between the Arsi-Oromo in Shashemene and the Sidama in Hawassa and the strong ethnic/cultural boundary between the two groups, which is further strengthened and ‘legalized’ by the ethnic/linguistic-based federal political system established following the 1991 political change.

Therefore, this study hypothesizes that state led interventions such as the establishment of large scale industrial parks in order to channel climate mobility to nearby areas can only be effective if socio-cultural and political context of inter-ethnic relations are duly considered. At the same time, the study asserts that social and ethnic networks are stronger in determining the pattern of climate mobility than material establishments, such as industrial parks, as in the case of Hawassa industrial park.