Climate driven migration: through global education and youth perspectives

0 of 19 lessons complete (0%)

Module 1: Climate migration

4. Climate change and migration

You don’t have access to this lesson

Please register or sign in to access the course content.

Homo Migrans

Moving has always been a universal feature of mankind from its very beginnings. We could even call Homo sapiens as Homo migrans as through-out our history migration has been a survival tactic and adaptation strategy to various environmental stresses.

Nowadays however, freedom of movement is not the same for everyone on this planet and moving is strongly limited by inequalities.

There are very different drivers of migration:

  • Voluntary, when people choose to leave at their own free will.
  • Forced, when people are forced to leave because of war, persecution, degradation of the environment, climate change etc.

Decisions to migrate can be both a result of:

  • individual interest or decision (e. g. love, curiosity, study, employment opportunities) and/or
  • structural changes, which can be divided into following:
    • Social changes/factors, such as ensuring better life opportunities for themselves and their families (e.g. sending their children to better and safer schools, possibility to find a decent job …).
    • Economic changes, such as finding more job opportunities that are also better paid.
    • Political changes, such as avoiding persecution and discrimination and other forms of human rights violations, war, armed conflicts …
    • Environmental changes, such as crop failure, pollution of water, air and soil, devastating natural disasters …

There were around 281 million international migrants in the world in 2020 (or 3.6 per cent of the global population). This is a small minority of the world’s population, which has in recent decades always been between 2 and 4 percent of overall global population, meaning that staying within one’s country of birth remains, overwhelmingly, the norm. Read more about it in the IOM World migration report 2022.

International migration from low-income countries has historically been limited and even though it has only slightly increased between 1995 and 2020, we are not really seeing unprecedented highs in international migrant shares:

  • Latin America and the Caribbean: 2.3 %
  • Africa: 1.9 %
  • Asia 1.8 %

Instead of perceiving migration as a problem, a change of perspective shows migration as a possible form of adaptation to the changing climate as well as a resource that can bring many benefits.

Consequences of climate change have a significant impact on migration patterns. Combined with other crises, such as COVID-19 related disruptions, their impact only intensifies, leading to longer-term impacts on migration. Indeed, in 2020 and in 2021 COVID-19 has radically altered mobility around the world and imposed even further travel restrictions that have resulted in thousands of migrants being stranded and in need of assistance. Read more about it here.

Already today, millions of people are forced to leave their homes each year due to floods, droughts, heat waves, hurricanes, rising sea levels and other natural disasters. Most often, they seek safety within their own country. The IFRC’s report Displacement in a Changing Climate claims that in 2020, 30.7 million people were internally displaced by disasters, over three times more than by conflict and violence. Experts are warning that such migrations due to the consequences of climate change will increase – according to the World Bank, there should be more than 200 million by the middle of the century. Read more about it here.

Migration and climate change

For millions of people migration is already the only way of adapting to climate change. Droughts, hurricanes, floods and sea level rise are all forcing people to move. Climate change is significantly altering patterns of migration, which is also confirmed in the new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Most climate-linked movements are internal rather than across international borders. Climate-linked migration is very often from rural areas into cities. For example, as drought hits agricultural areas, people move into nearby cities to find other work (they have migrated, but not far).

When people do cross borders, it is usually between neighbouring countries. However, in many cases of international climate migration, more often than not, climate change remains a hidden (or ignored) element, especially in before-mentioned multistage migration from rural areas into cities where people can stay longer at first, before moving across borders. When they eventually move, they are usually seen as “voluntary” economic migrants instead of climate refugees.

Climate-related migration is less common in industrialised, urbanised countries than it is in low-income countries with large rural populations. However, climate migration is an issue in the former as well. For example, unmitigated sea level rise is expected to reshape the population distribution to landlocked areas.

Both the slow-onset and sudden-onset climatic and environmental changes have a strong influence on population migration patterns:

  • Sudden-onset events (such as floods and landslides) often cause destruction of livelihoods and displace the affected populations who have to leave their homes mainly temporarily, but in some cases permanently.
  • Slow-onset events (such as droughts, rising sea-levels and other gradual land and environmental deterioration, which can lead to water scarcity and food insecurity) force people to migrate permanently.

For millions of people migration is already the only way of adapting to climate change. Droughts, hurricanes, floods and sea level rise are all forcing people to move. Climate change is significantly altering patterns of migration, which is also confirmed in the new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Most climate-linked movements are internal rather than across international borders. Climate-linked migration is very often from rural areas into cities. For example, as drought hits agricultural areas, people move into nearby cities to find other work (they have migrated, but not far).

When people do cross borders, it is usually between neighbouring countries. However, in many cases of international climate migration, more often than not, climate change remains a hidden (or ignored) element, especially in before-mentioned multistage migration from rural areas into cities where people can stay longer at first, before moving across borders. When they eventually move, they are usually seen as “voluntary” economic migrants instead of climate refugees.

Climate-related migration is less common in industrialised, urbanised countries than it is in low-income countries with large rural populations. However, climate migration is an issue in the former as well. For example, unmitigated sea level rise is expected to reshape the population distribution to landlocked areas.

Both the slow-onset and sudden-onset climatic and environmental changes have a strong influence on population migration patterns:

  • Sudden-onset events (such as floods and landslides) often cause destruction of livelihoods and displace the affected populations who have to leave their homes mainly temporarily, but in some cases permanently.
  • Slow-onset events (such as droughts, rising sea-levels and other gradual land and environmental deterioration, which can lead to water scarcity and food insecurity) force people to migrate permanently.

It’s rare that climate events alone are responsible for someone’s decision to move or stay put, but they can present an intensified risk of a compounded crisis together with socio-economic crises, disease outbreaks, conflicts and extreme marginalization. While climate migration can be a problem in both rich and poor countries, poverty is a major driver of people’s vulnerability to climate-related shocks and stressors. Oxfam research suggests that for instance, between 2008 and 2016, people in low- and lower-middle income countries were around five times more likely than people in high-income countries to be displaced by sudden-onset extreme weather disasters. Research can be accessed here.

The new Oxfam research shows that as climate impacts escalate, the humanitarian system is being put under increasing strain and is unable to adequately respond. Extreme weather related UN humanitarian appeal requirements are estimated to be around 800% higher in 2021 than they were in 2000. Research can be accessed here.

Climate change is an increasing factor in the causes of armed conflicts for water and other natural resources, moreover, many climatologists already consider Syrian refugees as climate refugees. The interplay between climate change and conflict has received increasing attention from researchers and policymakers over the last two decades. There is significant overlap between countries most affected by climate change and those most at risk of violent conflict. Read more about it here.

Migration as a climate change adaptation solution

People are already on the move as a way of coping with climate change. If they can migrate safely, legally and in plenty of time they are less likely to end up in humanitarian crises. Thus, if mentioned factors are enabled, migration can be used also as a coping strategy. In understanding this, we also need to underline that the most vulnerable of all are in fact the ones lacking the resources to move, thus becoming de facto trapped populations.

Lack of definitions – Lack of legal protection

Even though there are millions of people displaced due to climate change consequences there is still lack of any formal definition, recognition or protection under international law. Although it is similar to escaping war or prosecution, war refugees can at least hope for their return, while – in most cases – climate refugees can never return back home. The paradox of the international protection system is that whoever is not protected by the refugee status automatically becomes “illegal”. The criminalisation of migration is a direct consequence of the nonexistence of legal entry options. The level of rights and protection depends on whether relocation is temporary or permanent, whether people were displaced forcibly or voluntarily. The additional problem with the lack of formal and global definitions is the lack of systemic (and systematic) measurement of trends related to climate migration and hence the lack of systemic policy making to responsive actions, remedial actions and environment building.

There are several working definitions and usually the terms discussed are environmental refugee, environmental migrant and climate migrant or climate refugee, thereby adding to the confusion in discussing this topic.

In 2013 a Kiribati man, Ioane Teitiota, claimed the status of “climate change refugee” under the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and asking asylum, becoming the first person to do so. Both the New Zealand High Court and the Court of Appeal rejected this claim as untenable and in 2015, Ioane Teitiota’s asylum application in New Zealand was denied, and he was deported with his wife and children to his home country of Kiribati. However, in 2020, in its first and thus a historic ruling on a complaint by an individual seeking asylum from the effects of climate change, the UN Human Rights Committee has stated that countries may not deport individuals who face climate change-induced conditions that violate the right to life. This ruling undoubtedly sets forth new standards that could facilitate the success of future climate change-related asylum claims.

As of 2019, the International Organization for Migration has defined climate migrants as “a person or groups of persons who, predominantly for reasons of sudden or progressive change in the environment due to climate change, are obliged to leave their habitual place of residence, or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, within a State or across an international border.” However, this is just one of the definitions and we still lack internationally recognized and common definition of climate migrants and / or refugees. The above ruling of the UN Human Rights Committee gives a substantial reasoning and list of events that can prompt individuals to cross borders to ask for protection from climate-related harm. Read more about it here.

In the next part of the module, check the hotspot regions, which are currently strongly affected by climate change.

Skip to content