Explainer: Environmental Migration
The consequences of climate change are numerous and serious. Among them are an increase in extreme weather events, irreversible environmental degradation, and natural disasters. These are leading to an increased number of people, known as environmental or climate migrants, being forcibly displaced from their homes. People are three times more likely to be displaced by climate events than they are by conflict. In fact, climate fuelled disasters were the number one driver of internal displacement in the 2010s. According to Oxfam’s new report, “Forced from Home: Climate-Fuelled Displacement”, over 20 million people a year, the equivalent of one person every two seconds, were forced to leave their homes this past decade. These displacements disproportionately affect habitants in low and lower-middle income countries.
Who Exactly Is an Environmental Migrant?
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) proposes the following definition, “Environmental migrants are persons or groups of persons, who […] are obliged to leave their habitual homes, or chose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, and who move either within their country or abroad.” They are compelled to do so because of “sudden or progressive changes in the environment that adversely affect their lives or living conditions”.
Climate change is a driver of displacement. Rising sea levels, shoreline erosion, coastal flooding, droughts, salinization, water scarcity, and desertification all lead to the irreversible degradation of environmental resources rendering people’s livelihoods unsustainable. For instance, in 2018 alone, droughts were responsible for displacing 764,000 people from their homes in Somalia, Afghanistan and a number of other countries. While climate migration is mainly internal, displacement across borders is likely to occur down the line. Increased rural out-migration leads to unplanned urban growth and increased pressure on urban infrastructure and services. This can lead to increased food insecurity, socio-economic instability, and general urban ecological decline. It’s important to acknowledge the multicausality and complexity of the phenomenon. Underlying issues for migration might be environmental, but it is often social, political or economic factors that push people to migrate internationally. Of course, mobility is a privilege; it requires a number of financial and social resources not available to everyone. In many ways, “the people most vulnerable to climate change are not necessarily the ones most likely to migrate.”
Looking Forward
The notion of climate migrants is not new: in 1990 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that the greatest impact of climate change would be on human migration. As the carrying capacity of the world is increasingly being compromised by climate change, the need to study the threats to traditional landscapes and livelihoods, as well as their role in population displacement, is increasing. While it’s difficult to predict migratory flows, analysts estimate the number of people displaced by climate change related disasters or degradation will rise to 200 million by 2050.
What Can We Do?
Moving forward, we must work to reduce exposure to risks and put in place preventative measures. This could include developing better infrastructure in order to build resilience. In urban centres, infrastructure and services need to be developed so they are better equipped if, and when, there is an influx of rural migrants into these areas.
If the tools are developed within vulnerable communities, with community members as active collaborators, we can minimize forcible displacement. However, forcible displacement won’t be fully eradicated with our changing climate so we must look at providing regular migration pathways. These will facilitate migration strategies in response to environmental effects.
Lastly, and most importantly, nations, businesses and individuals will need to continue to work together to reduce our contributions to climate change. In the end, only long-term thinking of climate mitigation and resilience will truly help reduce the amount of climate migrants that we will be seeing in the future.
