Migration and Climate Change: An Overview

2019

International system has been facing a plethora of challenges since the beginning of the 21st century. Climate change and migration are among the crucial problems threatening the integrity of the system. Moreover, environmental and humanitarian crises have been triggered due to the global and transboundary effects of climate change and migration. This study argues that the nexus of climate change and migration is one great issue that requires the state to adopt a new governance approach to tackle with these problems. In this context, the study focuses on the different terms used in migration literature and the conceptualization of interrelation between migration and climate change with a descriptive method. The study aims to reveal vital problems by examining some hotspots where the migration flows happen as a result of climate change and its impacts. However, the study considers the potential positive effects of migration, as well. It is argued that for the state to respond to the ...

The topic of climate change and migration attracts a strong following from the media and produces an increase in academic literature and reports from international governmental institutions and NGOs. It poses questions that point to the core of social and environmental developments of the 21st century, such as environmental and climate justice as well as North–South relations. This article examines the main features of the debate and presents a genealogy of the discussion on climate change and migration since the 1980s. It presents an analysis of different framings and lines of argument, such as the securitization of climate change and connections to development studies and adaptation research. This article also presents methodological and conceptual questions, such as how to conceive interactions between migration and climate change. As legal aspects have played a crucial role since the beginning of the debate, different legal strands are considered here, including soft law and policy-oriented approaches. These approaches relate to questions of voluntary or forced migration and safeguarding the rights of environmental migrants. This article introduces theoretical concepts that are prompted by analyzing climate change as an " imaginative resource " and by questioning power relations related to climate-change discourses, politics, and practices. This article recommends a re-politicization of the debate, questions the often victimizing, passive picture of the " drowning " climate-change migrant, and criticizes alarmist voices that can trigger perceived security interests of countries of the Global North. Decolonizing and critical perspectives analyze facets of the debate that have racist, depoliticizing, or naturalizing tendencies or exoticize the " other. "

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science, 2016

The topic of climate change and migration attracts a strong following from the media and produces an increase in academic literature and reports from international governmental institutions and NGOs. It poses questions that point to the core of social and environmental developments of the 21st century, such as environmental and climate justice as well as North–South relations.This article examines the main features of the debate and presents a genealogy of the discussion on climate change and migration since the 1980s. It presents an analysis of different framings and lines of argument, such as the securitization of climate change and connections to development studies and adaptation research. This article also presents methodological and conceptual questions, such as how to conceive interactions between migration and climate change. As legal aspects have played a crucial role since the beginning of the debate, different legal strands are considered here, including soft law and poli...

2021

Climate change and migration are significantly affecting the geopolitics of the 21st century, and although they are still dealt with by common policies as distinct phenomena, they are indeed strongly interrelated and the nature of this relationship is the subject increasing attention both in the academic environment and in international political fora. In fact, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), for example, - which took place in Glasgow, Scotland, on the occasion of COP26 - has established a specific Task Force on Displacement and Mobility driven by the environmental effects of climate change. Given our globalised world, both phenomena require a response at national and international levels, involving state sovereignty, social justice and Human Rights. The aim of this paper, from a climate justice perspective, is to contribute towards the debate on the impact of climate change on migration and on the latter’s possible contribution to adaptation processes in response to the negative effects of the current climate crisis

Journal of International and Area Studies, 2021

This article elaborates on the theoretical foundations as well as the empirical outputs of climaterelated migration and formulates a contemporary framework in analyzing this subject. There has been a paradigm shift from securitizing climate-related migration towards an emphasis on adaptation, resilience and justice. While it is still possible to talk about security-oriented discourses based on the realist approach, climate change has increasingly been recognized as a 'threat multiplier' rather than a sole primary threat. In the meantime, the liberal approach has embraced adaptation, resilience and climate justice discourses about climate refugees. On the empirical front, climate-related migration is observed mainly in South Asia, the Pacific and Africa.

Journal of Sustainable Development, 2019

Climate change-induced migration is an emerging issue that poses significant humanitarian, economic, and political consequences if not addressed on the international stage. Yet, its interdisciplinary nature, while cementing it as a greater sustainable development concern, confounds policymaking. Disregarding the implications of climate change, including but not limited to resource insecurity and overpopulation leading to instability and conflict, only exacerbates the probability of climate change-induced migration becoming a humanitarian disaster. The most prominent hindrance to the development of such a policy is the lack of a universal approach for recognizing climate refugees. Recognition poses opportunities for globalization, however it also poses challenges stemming from negative perceptions of migrants. Nonetheless, this synthesis of existing literature illustrates that collaborative efforts for the international recognition of climate migrants—as well as their capacities for ...

2023

Climate disasters, environmental degradation, and the adverse effects of climate change are causing the displacement of individuals submerged in unknown waters in the realms of protection, where there is a legal gap in what is or, in this case, is not provided for them. More than 200 million people are expected to be forcibly displaced by the climate by 2050. Through a comprehensive analysis of the international panorama, the interconnected global challenges and their current unpredictability, the existential threat to human life posed by climate change, and the complex, multi-dimensional phenomenon per se of climate-induced migration, this dissertation will develop how to approach the problem of climate migration under this critical conjuncture for humankind. At the heart of a profound transformation of the current global dynamic, marked by uncertainty and the prevalence of national interests to the detriment of collective well-being, lies the issue of climate change. Such a crisis, with impacts on all levels of society, transcends national borders and calls for action based on international cooperation, particularly in view of the perverse effect it will have on human mobility. The exponential increase in climate-induced migration, whether internal or external, can be contained if our actions and collective mitigation efforts are both rapid and effective, which has not occurred as we find ourselves at the critical limit of global temperature projections. From an interdisciplinary, comprehensive, and long-term perspective, and based on the assumption that climate migration requires current legal frameworks related to the protection of migrants and/or refugees at a regional level to be adapted to this new reality, which does not comply with a one-size-fits-all approach. This dissertation aims to analyze not only the impact of climate change as a whole on migratory movements but also what possible and innovative ways of solving this problem are currently available to bridge the existing knowledge gaps and promote multilateral cooperation in shaping a sustainable future.

2017

Climate-induced migrations. Different forms of climate migrations. Climate change and displacement: a brief history. Three scenarios of glimate-induced migrations. Legal aspects of climate-induced migrations. Restraints in setting a framework.

Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, 2025

In this commentary we explore the confluence of factors shaping climateinduced migration and the need for comprehensive solutions grounded in historical and systemic understandings. We argue that climate change, colonial legacies, and geopolitical policies significantly influence migration patterns, particularly for historically marginalised communities. We call for scholars to develop holistic frameworks that consider environmental, political, historical, and economic factors while advocating for the legal recognition and protection of migrants and people displaced by climate impacts. Drawing on examples of internal migration and displacement in the United States and refugee camps globally, we highlight the complexities of resettlement. We propose integrated approaches that include legal reforms, economic reparations, and community-based solutions to address the root causes and effects of climate-induced migration. Our commentary emphasises the importance of interdisciplinary strategies to promote climate resilience and self-determination for affected communities. We advocate for narrative shifts and structural transformations to meet the global challenge, and opportunities, of climate-induced migration. Co-Authors: Rosalyn Negrón, David Hernández, Hossein Ayazi, Pablo Shiladitaya Bose, Nyingilanyeofori Brown, Elora Chowdhury, Janelle Knox-Hayes, Rajini Srikanth, Banu Subramaniam, Farhana Sultana, Patrick Sylvain, Carlos Vargas-Ramos, Charles Venator-Santiago

GroJIL, 2019

This article analyses the impacts of climate change which are no longer only within the scientific realm. This analysis reveals the effects of climate change and the challenges that it poses to the current refugee definition and the existing regime of refugee protection in international law. An all-inclusive refugee definition under international law, to include climate change as a Convention ground for people to seek refugee status is argued for herein. Judicial expansion of the definition and the development of soft law principles to cater for climate migrants is also discussed. Nevertheless, it is also noted that there exist numerous challenges in the re-imagination of the concept of forced migration in the face of climate change. Political considerations as well as a lack of State will and consensus on the existence of climate migrants have been the most visible challenges yet.