Post-War Environmental and Socio-Economic Crisis and Their Contribution to Youth Migration

Abstract

International youth migration has increasingly become a defining socio-economic challenge, particularly in ecologically vulnerable and conflict-affected regions like the Horn of Africa. This systematic review examines the compounding impacts of the 2020–2022 Tigray war, post-war environmental degradation, and socio-economic crises on youth out-migration in Northern Ethiopia. Adhering to the PRISMA guidelines, a rigorous literature search of electronic databases and gray literature sources published between 2020 and 2026 yielded 43 eligible studies for qualitative synthesis. The findings reveal that the intersection of prolonged armed conflict and severe environmental shocks such as recurrent droughts, land degradation, and the destruction of agricultural and livestock buffers has severely eroded rural livelihoods. Consequently, traditional coping mechanisms have broken down, transforming youth migration from a standard livelihood diversification strategy into an often unmanaged, forced survival mechanism. While remittances offer temporary relief to struggling households, mass out-migration accelerates rural labor shortages, deepens dependency ratios, and exposes young people to the severe hazards of irregular migration. The review highlights critical institutional gaps and emphasizes that sustainable post-war recovery requires integrated policies combining environmental restoration, rural livelihood revitalization, and youth-targeted economic opportunities.