Climate Change Vulnerability And Migration

This book highlights how climate change has affected migration in the Indian subcontinent. Drawing on field research, it argues that extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, cyclones, cloudbursts as well as sea-level rise, desertification and declining crop productivity have shown higher frequency in recent times and have depleted bio-physical diversity and the capacity of the ecosystem to provide food and livelihood security. The volume shows how the socio-economically poor are worst affected in these circumstances and resort to migration to survive. The essays in the volume study the role of remittances sent by migrants to their families in environmentally fragile zones in providing an important cushion and adaptation capabilities to cope with extreme weather events. The book looks at the socio-economic and political drivers of migration, different forms of mobility, mortality and morbidity levels in the affected population, and discusses mitigation and adaption strategies. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of environment and ecology, migration and diaspora studies, development studies, sociology and social anthropology, governance and public policy, and politics.

This book addresses environmental and climate change induced migration from the vantage point of migration studies, offering a broad spectrum of approaches for considering the environment/climate/migration nexus. Research on the subject is still frequently narrowed down to climate change vulnerability and the environmental push factor. The book establishes the interconnections between societal and environmental vulnerability, and migration and capability, allowing appreciation of migration in the frame of climate as a case of spatial and social mobility, that is, as a strategy of persons and groups to deal with a grossly unequal distribution of life chances across the world. In their introduction, the editors fan out the current debate and state the need to transcend predominantly policy-oriented approaches to migration. The first section of the volume focuses on “Methodologies and Methods” and presents very distinct approaches to think climate induced migration. Subsequent chapters explore the sensitivity of existing migration flows to climate change in Ghana and Bangladesh, the complex relationship between migration, demographic change and coping capacities in Canada, methodological challenges of a household survey on the significance of migration and remittances for adaptation in the Hindu Kush region and an econometric study of the aftermath of the 1998 floods in Bangladesh. The second part, “Areas of Concern: Politics and Human Rights”, deepens the analysis of discourses as well as of the implications of proposed and implemented policies. Contributors discuss such topics as environmental migration as a multi-causal problem, climate migration as a consequence in an alarmist discourse and climate migration as a solution. A study of an integrated relocation program in Papua New Guinea is followed by chapters on the promise and the flaws of planned relocation policy, global policy on protection of environmental migrants including both internally displaced peoples and those who cross international borders. A concluding chapter places human agency at centre stage and explores the interplay between human rights, capability and migration.

UN publications sales number E.08.III.S.4.Recent empirical studies have found that climate variability and migration are characterized by a non-linear relationship. This study explores the climate change impacts on migratory processes. It outlines the key elements of natural and human induced climate change of potential relevance to migration, discusses the current state of debate about the relationship between climate change and migration, and describes possible approaches and methodologies with which to further our understanding of climate change-related migration.

This book is one of the outputs of the conference on ‘Environmental Change, Forced Migration, and Social Vulnerability’ (EFMSV) held in Bonn in October 2008. Migration is one of the oldest adaptation measures of humanity. Indeed, without migration the multitude of civilizations and interactions between them – peaceful and otherwise – would be hard to imagine. The United Nations (UN)-led global dialogue on migration is a clear sign that governments and the specialized UN agencies and bodies have recognized the need to view, govern, manage, and facilitate migration; to mitigate its negative effects; and to capitalize on the positive ones. It is a common expectation among experts that environmentally induced migration will further increase in the decades to come. Hence, next to the political, economic, ethnic, social, financial, humanitarian, and security aspects of migration, the environmental component should urgently be considered in the ongoing international dialogue on migration. This need is also a challenge. Without appropriate scientific knowledge, assessment, definitions, and classifications, the intergovernmental frameworks would not be able to deal with these complex phenomena. The Five-Pronged-Approach as formulated by the United Nations University (UNU) may serve as a framework to identify the additional dimensions of this challenge next to – and actually simultaneously with – the scientific one.

Gradual and sudden environmental changes are resulting in substantial human movement and displacement, and the scale of such flows, both internal and cross-border, is expected to rise with unprecedented impacts on lives and livelihoods. Despite the potential challenge, there has been a lack of strategic thinking about this policy area partly due to a lack of data and empirical research on this topic. Adequately planning for and managing environmentallyinduced migration will be critical for human security. The papers in this volume were first presented at the Research Workshop on Migration and the Environment: Developing a Global Research Agenda held in Munich, Germany in April 2008. One of the key objectives on the Munich workshop was to address the need for more sound empirical research and identify priority areas of research for policy makers in the field of migration and the environment.

This comprehensive Research Handbook provides an overview of the debates on how the law does, and could, relate to migration exacerbated by climate change. It contains conceptual chapters on the relationship between climate change, migration and the law, as well as doctrinal and prospective discussions regarding legal developments in different domestic contexts and in international governance.

This book addresses environmental and climate change induced migration from the vantage point of migration studies, offering a broad spectrum of approaches for considering the environment/climate/migration nexus. Research on the subject is still frequently narrowed down to climate change vulnerability and the environmental push factor. The book establishes the interconnections between societal and environmental vulnerability, and migration and capability, allowing appreciation of migration in the frame of climate as a case of spatial and social mobility, that is, as a strategy of persons and groups to deal with a grossly unequal distribution of life chances across the world. In their introduction, the editors fan out the current debate and state the need to transcend predominantly policy-oriented approaches to migration. The first section of the volume focuses on “Methodologies and Methods” and presents very distinct approaches to think climate induced migration. Subsequent chapters explore the sensitivity of existing migration flows to climate change in Ghana and Bangladesh, the complex relationship between migration, demographic change and coping capacities in Canada, methodological challenges of a household survey on the significance of migration and remittances for adaptation in the Hindu Kush region and an econometric study of the aftermath of the 1998 floods in Bangladesh. The second part, “Areas of Concern: Politics and Human Rights”, deepens the analysis of discourses as well as of the implications of proposed and implemented policies. Contributors discuss such topics as environmental migration as a multi-causal problem, climate migration as a consequence in an alarmist discourse and climate migration as a solution. A study of an integrated relocation program in Papua New Guinea is followed by chapters on the promise and the flaws of planned relocation policy, global policy on protection of environmental migrants including both internally displaced peoples and those who cross international borders. A concluding chapter places human agency at centre stage and explores the interplay between human rights, capability and migration.

The first comprehensive review of the interaction between climate change and migration; for advanced students, researchers and policy makers.