Environmentally Driven Migration in EU Discourse: Norms, Policies, and Realities

Abstract

For decades, the European Union (EU) has been addressing issues related to climate change and ecological degradation as a self-proclaimed pro-environmental and human rights-oriented actor. Correspondingly, the topic of the so called environmentally driven migration entered the EU discourse at the dawn of the new millennium. Considering the EU’s interest in the human rights and environmental/climate issue areas, I argue it is important to ask what the Union’s approach to this matter has been. Thus, this article assesses the European Union discourse related to the topic of environmental migration over the past twenty-year period. Through the theoretical lens of the Copenhagen School of Security Studies and the normative power EU conception, this paper critically analyses the EU’s securitisation of climate change in relation to persons referred to as environmental migrants. Based on a qualitative discourse analysis, the preliminary results imply that the topic has been receding into the background of the EU agenda. In line, environmental migrants have been pushed aside by a multiplicity of other subjects threatened by climate change, thus receiving lesser attention in the EU climate change and migration management policies. Overall, the findings show a shift from an alarmist discourse to more pragmatism on the EU’s behalf and a larger focus on adaptation and resilience in most affected areas. Thereupon, this article questions the normative standard the EU sets for itself when it comes to the case of environmental migrant protection.