Climate Change, Migration, Rights.
As creatures created for high mobility, humans have a long history of migration. So far, we are familiar with various migration events motivated by economic, political, and social issues, both within the country and between countries. But, have we ever thought that climate change could increase the dynamics of international migration?
Climate change is a bitter fact that we are facing now. Climate change is characterized by an increase in global temperature of 1.5 degrees Celsius from February 2023 to January 2024 (UN, 2024). This increase in temperature has an impact on climate anomalies, namely El-Nino throughout 2023 which will cause drought in Southeast Asia, and La-Nina in 2024 which risks increasing major storm disasters in the North Atlantic and West Africa (BBC, 2024). Apart from that, seawater in the world has risen by around 0.7 centimeters, and if it is taken from 1993, the rise in seawater has reached 9.4 centimeters (Kompas, 2024). Not only that, the increasingly widespread drought caused by climate change seriously threatens human life, because water is the source of life for civilization. This includes land degradation, where the function of the land is decreasing due to climate anomalies that are unfriendly to the land.
Of the several impacts of climate change, they are tied to a network that leads to one thing. This is food insecurity. Food has a vital essence in life. Food insecurity occurs if food production always fails. This can happen because the source of food production — namely the land — is damaged due to extreme weather, triggering crop failure. Food insecurity in an area will lead to massive changes in livelihood and reduce the population's welfare. If this happens in the long term, it will trigger a wave of migration of victims of the environmental and food crisis to look for new, fertile places to survive and produce food (IOM, 2024).
Another fact is that the World Economic Forum in 2023 published a Global Risk Perception Survey (2023) report which said that the biggest global risk today is not from economic or socio-political factors, but extreme weather with a total of 66%.
Disasters caused by climate change can thwart human productivity in the affected areas. The current climate change not only causes changes in environmental structure but also has an impact on humans themselves, who are very dependent on the environment for their main livelihood. If their livelihoods or their sources of productivity are damaged, or “taken away” by Mother Earth, they will be forced to move to look for new land, or other, more prosperous countries to survive. Human movement caused by natural factors is included in the type of migration, namely “Climate Refugee” (Hass et all, 2020). Unfortunately, the ILO states that many still view climate refugees as a failure to adapt to their environmental dynamics (ILO, 2024).
Still, confused? Let me help you here.
It’s as simple as this, imagine you are a shrimp farmer and live close to the sea. The further you get here, the ponds you have made are sinking due to higher sea levels, or due to rainy weather that is higher than usual. This also affects your house near the sea, over time your house will sink along with your shrimp pond. So, you will be forced to move to another place to live and continue your life. But unfortunately, in a new place, you are discriminated against by host residents because they consider you as an immigrant who is detrimental to host residents. Due to the low legal power over you, you continue to be a refugee until someone willingly accepts you (we don’t know when someone will accept your refugee status).
Is there any climate migration occurring in countries or regions?
Several countries in the world are already experiencing migration caused by the climate crisis and its derivative disasters.
Bangladesh
WHO (2022) reports that more than 7.1 million people in Bangladesh are “displaced” due to climate change, this could even increase to 13.3 million people in 2050.
Indonesia
The Asia Development Bank (ADB) reports that Indonesia is the third country most at risk of being affected by climate change, where around 1.4 million people will be affected by extreme flooding, and the homes of around 4.2 million people will be submerged due to perpetual flooding (ADB, 2021).
China
One of the areas most affected by climate change is Guizhou. From 2012 to 2020, almost 2 million people have been moved from places at risk to safer places. China has a special program for this called “Ecological Migration” which has been running since 1983.
Central America
The central part of the American continent has a high level of disasters, starting from the shape of the coastline and lowlands, resulting in tidal floods, erosion, and drowning due to rising sea levels. Apart from that, this area is often known for violent storms which increase in intensity. It is recorded that crop failure in Central America has affected 2.2 million people, and 1.4 million people do not get enough food (FAO, 2019).
What’s the impact? It is terrible?
If we correlate it with this theme, the destruction of the environment caused by climate change will definitely have an impact on the existence of massive migration waves, perhaps even unforeseen. It happens because we are too focused on political and economic issues, rather than our environment, which is our foothold.
But, here are the sad things about them.
Sadly, migrants from climate migrants have greater challenges, because they do not have legal powers compared to “traditional migrants”. Even when I looked for proof for my argument above, I found more laws for traditional migrants. This was further strengthened when I read an article from Tlyer Bergeron (2023) which stated that in essence there is no legally binding global agreement to support climate migrants. This also includes the 1951 Convention, which became the “constitution” for countries in the world (which ratified it) to deal with migrants, in that it does not define those who migrate due to climate change as a whole. The convention makes little reference to those who are victims of instability caused by climate change, triggering regional conflicts. The convention is unable to respond to those who are victims of the ferocity of climate change which causes regions, even countries, to be “swallowed up by the earth”.
The international community needs to promulgate a new treaty defining the status of, obligations to, and obligations of, climate refugees before the effects start exponentially increasing displacement.
- Tyler Bergeron, 2023
Dragomir (2024) in her article on Al Jazeera also has the same tone regarding international law for climate migrants. Some argue that this could challenge The 1951 Convention, which defines the term “refugee” strictly according to “fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.” According to him, so far there are still many who think that climate migrants can cloud our global commitment and focus towards those who migrate due to suffering from persecution and conflict, which is currently starting to become fragile.
This absence of a specific legally defined framework poses hurdles for individuals seeking migration status due to climate change impacts.
- Cristina Ioana Dragomir, 2024.
If these climate migrants are not treated like traditional migrants before the law, it will have negative consequences for international stability. The World Bank in its report entitled “Groundswell Part II” (2021) estimates that by 2050, there will be 216 million people on this planet who will migrate due to environmental degradation due to climate change. Of the 216 million people, the three largest are 86 million people from Sub-Saharan Africa, 49 million people in East Asia and the Pacific, 40 million people in South Asia, and another 41 million people from other continents (Clement et all, 2021).
With such high migration flows, apart from improving environmental health, governments and international institutions should prepare local regulations, agreements, and international protocols to deal with migration flows resulting from increasingly immeasurable climate change. This can at least provide security and welfare guarantees for migrants and local residents in the host country.
Stakeholders in host countries must adopt policies that offer new life opportunities to individuals affected by climate change while safeguarding the assets of local residents in the host country/region.
Did the International organization do something about it?
Sure! At least, I would like to express appreciation for some international organizations that have taken concrete steps to care for climate change-induced migration. These organizations are:
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
As an international organization that focuses on international migration, it has established a Migration, Environment, and Climate Change (MECC) Division specifically formed to handle migration, environment, and climate relations in 2015 after being requested by member countries since 2007 (IOM, 2024).
International Labor Organization (ILO)
The ILO has contributed to the Disaster Displacement Platform (PDD) through the implementation of regional and integrated projects and action plans. As well as signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UNCCD to combat migration-related challenges. The ILO also provides technical support to countries to meet their development goals through training, advice, and support to promote decent work opportunities both at home and abroad for local and migrant workers. The ILO also works with countries and regional organizations to consider the role of labor migration in climate adaptation strategies, and in contributing to a just transition toward an environmentally sustainable economy (ILO, 2023)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR)
As one of the international institutions that acts to protect the rights and welfare of refugees, UNCHR has created a framework called the Strategic Plan for Climate Action 2024–2030. This framework was created because according to UNCHR in 2030, more and more people will be forcibly displaced due to crises triggered by climate change and/or live in countries that are very vulnerable to climate change. In essence, the framework contains UNCHR’s important commitments and requirements to collaborate in more essential environmental actions to create a brighter future for refugees with countries and regional international organizations.
And, it’s the conclusion.
International migration dynamics are increasingly influenced by climate change. Phenomena that initially only occurred in nature now also affect human life directly. The increasingly massive climate migration still does not have adequate legal protection at both the national and international levels. In addition, there are still sad perceptions that climate migrants are the result of humanity’s inability to adapt. This negative perception needs to be changed because it is often used to ignore the greater responsibility for their protection, either because of the interests of other migrants, or because people still have their own egos towards migrants.
If not handled seriously, increasing climate damage will trigger a variety of wider problems, including economic, political, and socio-cultural. Therefore, it is important to improve our environment and ensure the sustainability of natural resources to ensure the well-being of future generations. As the main “predator” of the environment, humans have a big responsibility to save the ecosystem we live in for a better future.