The New Great Flood: Climate Displacement and Access to Asylum
Download the full policy memo here.
“The refugee the world barely pays attention to…who currently lack[s] any formal definition, recognition or protection under international law even as the scope of their predicament becomes more clear.”
— Tim McDonnell, NPR (2018)
As of 2020, nearly 80 million individuals have been displaced due to conflict or persecution. Climate change is expected to permanently displace upwards of an additional 200 million people by 2050, leaving another 50 million at risk of death due to sea-level rise, unprecedented flooding, and continental drought.
By 2030, at least 60 million people are forecast to migrate from Sub-Saharan Africa towards North America, with many likely to seek asylum in the United States. Current US immigration and asylum policy fail to define a ‘climate refugee’ and thus lack mechanisms for legal entry, resettlement, or workforce integration. Supplying asylum protections to climate refugees requires efficiency and political buy-in that can be facilitated through the introduction of cogent state subsidies and frameworks for incremental immigration reform. Expanding access to asylum to climate refugees will mitigate national security risks, propagate economic growth at state and local levels, and affirm U.S. commitment to upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Those displaced by climate change will be as vulnerable as those escaping conflict zones, as their homes become uninhabitable and basic needs for survival can no longer be met. The conditions of transnational displacement are universally dire, regardless of the cause. Climate refugees have been rendered stateless and require asylum protections in order to guarantee their inalienable right to life. The designation of ‘climate refugee’ and the subsequent expansion of access to asylum is requisite in order to uphold universal human rights.
Download the full policy memo here.
