ECONIS Select – Preparing for Environmental Migration

07/2010

Selected for the Global Economic Symposium 2010

Global warming will reduce the “carrying capacity” of ecosystems in large parts of the world – that is, their ability to provide food, water and shelter for the people who currently live there. The most widely cited estimate puts the number of people affected at 200 million individuals by 2050 – similar to the current total number of international labor migrants, and more than five times the number of refugees and internally displaced persons accounted for by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR).

In spite of the large number of people likely to be affected in the near future, the academic and policy communities so far have given little thought to how these people might find new homes and livelihoods.

Reluctance to tackle this issue reflects, in part, the potentially wide-ranging implications in international law of defining the status of an environmental refugee akin to that of a refugee from conflict or persecution.

Furthermore, environmental migration is a complex phenomenon. Only rarely will the impact of environmental degradation be as obvious as a farmer’s land being submerged by a rising sea level. More typically, local, regional, and international factors like population growth, soil degradation, higher temperatures, and extreme weather events will combine to threaten livelihoods. External or internal migration is one way in which individuals may respond to this threat: Either whole households leave affected areas or individual family members seek work elsewhere, giving the household an additional source of income.

• How can opportunities for international labor migration be enhanced to help people to cope with the consequences of climate change and environmental degradation?
• In what circumstances and to what degree are adaptation strategies substitutes for migration? Under what circumstances do we need an international regime for environmental migration?
• If so, which international organization would be best placed to take care of it?
• If people need to move, should they be directed primarily to high-income countries (where economic opportunities would be richer) or elsewhere within their own countries or neighboring countries (where integration might be easier)?
• What are feasible strategies for creating jobs for large numbers of resettled individuals and how can the private sector contribute?
• Should immigration regimes in high-income countries be readjusted to favor environmental migrants (rather than, say, the high-skilled)?
• How can business and civil society help address the migration problems?
• What policy framework would enable these groups to play an appropriate and effective role?

Literature selected from our database ECONIS:

• Title: Expert seminar: migration and the environment; [this publication includes the materials fo the two-day Expert Seminar on Migration and the Environment organized by IOM with the co-sponsorship of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), held in Bangkok, Thailand on February 22 and 23, 2007] / International Organization for Migration ...
  Corporate body: Expert Seminar: Migration and the Environment International Organization for Migration
  Published: Geneva: Internat. Organization for Migration, Migration Policy and Research Programme, 2008
  Subject heading: International migration / Environmental Degradation / Climate change
  Link: Table of contents
• Article: Rethinking climate refugees and climate conflict: rhetoric, reality and the politics of policy discourse / Betsy Hartmann
  In: Journal of international development. - Chichester: Wiley, ISSN 0954-1748, ZDB-ID 27253x. - Bd. 22.2010, 2, S. 233-246
• Title: Accommodating migration to promote adaptation to climate change: background paper to the 2010 World Development Report / Jon Barnett; Michael Webber
  Published: Washington, DC: World Bank, Development Economics, Office of the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, 2010
  Link:
  http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2010/04/13/ 000158349_20100413131732/Rendered/PDF/WPS5270.pdf
• Title: Social dimensions of climate change: equity and vulnerability in a warming world / The World Bank. Robin Mearns ..., eds.
  Corporate body: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
  Published: Washington, DC: World Bank, 2010
  Subject heading: Climate change / Social impact / Social change / Social justice / World
  Link: Table of contents
• Article: Mitigation and adaptation in agriculture, fisheries and forestry / Anthony Okon Nyong
  In: Trade, climate change and sustainable development. - London: Commonwealth Secretariat, ISBN 978-0-85092-881-5. - 2009, S. 99-119
  Subject heading: External sector / International trade policy / International migration / Climate change / Sustainable development / Agriculture / Forestry / Fishery / Developing countries
• Title: Climate change and migration: improving methodologies to estimate flows / prep. for IOM by Dominic Kniveton; Kerstin Schmidt-Verkerk; Christopher Smith and Richard Black
  Published: Geneva: Internat. Organization for Migration, 2008
  Subject heading: Climate change / Internal migration / International migration
  Link: Table of contents
• Title: Conflict, disasters and no jobs: reasons for international migration from Sub-Saharan Africa / Wim Naudé
  Published: Helsinki: UNU-WIDER, Oct. 2008
  Subject heading: International migration / Emigration / Political conflict / Natural disaster / Environmental Degradation / Africa South of Sahara / 1965-2005
  Link: http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/working-papers/research-papers/2008/en_GB/rp2008-85/_files/80186791133512161/default/rp2008-85.pdf
• Title: Migration, development and environment / by Graeme Hugo
  Published: Geneva: Internat. Organization for Migration, 2008
  Subject heading: International migration / Economic development / Environment
  Link: Table of contents
• Title: Path to development or road to nowhere: poverty, labour migration and environment linkages in developing countries / C. M. Marquette
  Corporate body: Committee for International Cooperation of National Research in Demography
  Published: Paris: CICRED, 2007
  Subject heading: Poverty / International labour mobility / Return migration / Environmental Degradation / World / Developing countries
• Title: Climatic change and rural-urban migration: the case of Sub-Saharan Africa / Salavador Barrios, Luisito Bertinelli and Eric Strobl
  Published: May 2006
  Subject heading: Climate change / |stw| Rural-urban migration / |stw| Urbanization / |stw| Central Africa / |stw| Weather
  Links:
  http://www.core.ucl.ac.be/services/psfiles/dp06/dp2006_46.pdf
  http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/serien/e/CORE/dp2006_46.pdf