Migration and Climate Change: An Overview

Abstract

Climate change has become a major concern for the international community. Among its consequences, its impact on migration is the object of increasing attention from both policy-makers and researchers. Yet, knowledge in this field remains limited and fragmented. This article therefore provides an overview of the climate changemigration nexus: on the basis of available empirical findings, it investigates the key issues at stake, including the social and political context in which the topic emerged; States' policy responses and the views of different institutional actors; critical perspectives on the actual relationship between the environment and (forced) migration; the concepts and notions most adequate to address this relationship; gender and human rights implications; as well as international law and policy orientations. Two major interconnected arguments arise. The first regards the weight of environmental and climatic factors in migration and their relationship to other push or pull factors, whether of a social, political, or economic nature. The second is about the political framework in which such migration flows should take place and the manner in which to treat the people who move in connection with environmental factors. The two issues are deeply intertwined, as the extent to which the environment determines migration is intimately connected to the status to be associated with the people concerned.

Socio-economic consequences of post-disaster reconstruction in hazard-exposed areas

“…Previous research indicates that the relationship between environmental hazards and human migration is complex 16,17 . This influenced our choice of methodology for this study in two ways.…”

Clouds gather in the sky, but no rain falls. Vulnerability to rainfall variability and food insecurity in Northern Bangladesh and its effects on migration

“…If people leave a place, because their livelihoods have been negatively affected by natural hazards or environmental changes, one might speak of 'environmentally induced migration ' (cf. McLeman & Smit, 2006;Piguet, Pécoud, & de Guchteneire, 2011;Warner, Hamza, Oliver-Smith, Renaud, & Julca, 2010 for an introduction to the debate and its contested terminology). In order to understand migration in the context of climate change, Findlay and Geddes (2011) argued that one should first investigate pre-existing mobility patterns and livelihood systems, and then assess the 'additional burden' that climate-related risks pose for people.…”

Climate Change and Migration: A Dynamic Model

“…Beine and Parsons (2015) corroborates the latter finding, but find no evidence that climate change has directly lead to increased migration; they do find indirect pressures can arise by the adverse effect of climate change upon earnings in the country from which individuals migrate, in a similarly structured study, with a more granular definition of time periods (which allows a more precise measurement of temperature-and precipitation anomalies), Coniglio and Pesce (2015) find evidence that persistent changes in precipitation patterns, as measured by the intra-annual variability, significantly increase out-migration. The conflicting evidence from these studies points to a subtle empirical concern, namely that it may be difficult to distinguish between various causal effects (Auffhammer and Vincent, 2012;Lilleør and Van den Broeck, 2011;Piguet et al, 2011). There is also some debate as to the efficacy of migration from poor countries.…”