"From Aspirations for Climate Action to the Reality of Climate Disasters": Can Migrants Play Key Role in Disaster Response?

Climate change and extreme weather events have led to a surge in natural hazards in Pakistan that have escalated into humanitarian disasters. Prior studies have largely documented the significant role of remittances in dealing with unforeseen natural disasters. This paper investigates the reaction of Pakistani migrants to natural disasters via remittances from 1972 to 2023. Using a flexible event-study methodology suited to examining the changes in remittances beyond expectation during a specific period of time, the paper compares the responses of remittances in different host countries namely Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Europe and North America Countries. Our findings reveal that the response is significant two (one) months after the events for GCC (Europe and North America), and tends to dissipate five months from the disaster occurrence (except for GCC). The intensity and the persistence of remittances'responsiveness (abnormal returns and volatility) depends on the nature of disasters, host countries'features and the economic conditions of migrants limiting their ability to send additional financial resources at home.Overall, migrant remittances may act as immediate and direct aid to households harmfully affected by disasters, substituting for the delayed arrival of official aid.