In Support of the Debate on the Terminology Related to the Terms Climate Refugees, Climate Migrants, Environmentally Displaced Persons and Similar Terms

Abstract

The paper deals with the terminological issues concerning the growing phenomenon of people fleeing their homes and states because they can no longer live normal lives or any lives at all due to the impact of climate change. This is particularly the case in poor coastal and small island states due to rising sea levels. To date, various terms are used in the scientific literature to describe these people, such as climate refugees, climate migrants, environmentally displaced persons, ecological migrants or eco-migrants, climate induced migrants, seasonal migrants, low-lying peoples, forced climate migrants, climate change-related migrants, survival refugees, etc. These terms are also often used in reports by international governmental and non-governmental organisations, in political speeches and texts, in the media, on social networks, by activists, etc. Since there is no academic and political consensus on the appropriate term, there is also no generally accepted consensus on what exactly constitutes this category of vulnerable people. The paper provides an analysis of existing (proposed) terms and concepts and warns that some of them are ill-suited, misleading, inaccurate, and/or do not comply with (international) law and official legal terminology. This is particularly true for the term climate refugees, as the term refugee under the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol does not include displacement caused by environmental factors. Without uniform terms, definitions of concepts and clearly stated rights in international and national legal systems, these multi-million groups of people cannot benefit from appropriate and effective legal protection. Based on a critical analysis of the elements of the most commonly used terms and concepts, the paper proposes to discard some of them and advocates for the legally and politically most acceptable solution.