Research and reports
IOM’s Dina Ionesco talks about the links between climate change, land degredation and migration. “Dina Ionesco, Policy Officer at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) explains the links between climate change, land degredation and migration and explains what the organisation learnt in the case of a combination of drought and conflict in the Sahel.”
Environmental migrants: A myth? Environmental migration has been the subject of lively debate in recent years. Recent International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) research lets us put this debate into perspective.
Rethinking Durable Solutions to Displacement in the Context of Climate Change. “Displacement caused by conflict and human rights violations is typically resolved through the pursuit of three “durable solutions”: local integration, resettlement or voluntary return … However, in recent years it has become clear that this assumption needs to be reconsidered.”
Tackling exposure: placing disaster risk management at the heart of national economic and fiscal policy. “2011 was the costliest year on record for disasters – in economic terms – with estimated global losses of US$380 billion.”
International Dialogue on Migration N°18 – Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Migration.
Events:
Commonwealth Migration: learning from the past, anticipating the future. 14 June, 6:30pm – 9pm, Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG
News and commentary:
‘We have seen the enemy’: Bangladesh’s war against climate change. “Devastating cyclones, floods and ruined crops have made Bangladesh ‘the world’s most aware society on climate change'”
Video: Informal Ministerial Roundtable for Ambitious Follow-up to Durban – Accelerated Climate Actions. “Welcome, introduction and objectves of the meeting by Connie HEDEGAARD, Member of the EC in charge of Climate Action”
Workshop on Climate Change, Migration and Mortality. “About 30 researchers are expected to participate in a five-day data analysis and scientific writing workshop organised by INDEPTH Network with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation”
Hello and thank you for this article. So-called environmentally induced migration is multi-level problem. According to Essam El-Hinnawi definition form 1985 environmental refugees as those people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental disruption (natural or triggered by people) that jeopardised their existence and/or seriously affected the quality of their life. The fundamental distinction between `environmental migrants` and `environmental refugees` is a standpoint of contemporsry studies in EDPs.
According to Bogumil Terminski it seems reasonable to distinguish the general category of environmental migrants from the more specific (subordinate to it) category of environmental refugees.
Environmental migrants, therefore, are persons making a short-lived, cyclical, or longerterm change of residence, of a voluntary or forced character, due to specific environmental factors. Environmental refugees form a specific type of environmental migrant.
Environmental refugees, therefore, are persons compelled to spontaneous, short-lived, cyclical, or longer-term changes of residence due to sudden or gradually worsening changes in environmental factors important to their living, which may be of either a short-term or an irreversible character.
According to Norman Myers environmental refugees are “people who can no longer gain a secure livelihood in their homelands because of drought, soil erosion, desertification, deforestation and other environmental problems, together with associated problems of population pressures and profound poverty”.