Environmental migrants are people who are forced to leave their home of residency due to sudden or long-term changes to their local or regional environment. These changes compromise their well-being or livelihood, and include increased drought, desertification, sea level rise, and disruption of seasonal weather patterns (such as monsoons). Though there is no uniform, clear-cut definition of environmental migration, the idea is gaining attention as policy-makers and environmental and social scientists attempt to conceptualize the potential social effects of climate change and other environmental degradation. Environmental migration also reflects broader global inequalities, as marginalized and racialized communities often experience the most severe environmental degradation while having the least resources and political power to adapt or relocate. Environmental migrants originate from a variety of different locations, including Small Island Developing States.
"Environmental migrant" and "climate migrant" (or "climate refugee") are used somewhat interchangeably with a range of similar terms, such as ecological refugee, environmental refugee, forced environmental migrant, environmentally motivated migrant, environmentally displaced person (EDP), disaster refugee, environmental displacee, eco-refugee, ecologically displaced person, or environmental-refugee-to-be (ERTB).Boano, C., Zetter, R., and Morris, T., (2008). Environmentally Displaced People: Understanding the linkages between environmental change, livelihoods and forced migration , Refugee Studies Centre Policy Brief No. 1 (RSC: Oxford), pg.4 The distinctions between these terms remain contested.
Definition and concept The term "environmental refugee" was first proposed by Lester Brown in 1976. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) proposes the following definition for environmental migrants:"Environmental migrants are persons or groups of persons who, for compelling reasons of sudden or progressive changes in the environment that adversely affect their lives or living conditions, are obliged to leave their habitual homes, or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, and who move either within their country or abroad."IN 1985, UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) researcher Essam El-Hinnawi defined environmental refugees as:
"those people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental disruption (natural and/or triggered by people) that jeopardized their existence and/or seriously affected the quality of their life [sic]. By 'environmental disruption' in this definition is meant any physical, chemical, and/or biological changes in the ecosystem (or resource base) that render it, temporarily or permanently, unsuitable to support human life."
Climate migrants are a subset of environmental migrants who were forced to flee "due to sudden or gradual alterations in the natural environment related to at least one of three impacts of climate change: sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and drought and water scarcity."Global Governance Project. (2012). Forum on Climate Refugees. Retrieved on 5 May 2012.
Critics of these definitions argue that they overlook the structural and political drivers of displacement, such as colonial legacies, racialized land use policies, and unequal resource extraction. Scholars in environmental justice studies emphasize that these factors shape who becomes displaced, making environmental migration a social and political issue as much as an ecological one.
Types The International Organization for Migration proposes three types of environmental migrants: Environmental emergency migrants: individuals who flee temporarily due to an environmental disaster or sudden environmental event. (Example: someone forced to leave due to a natural disaster) Environmental forced migrants: individuals who have to leave due to deteriorating environmental conditions. (Example: someone forced to leave due to a slow deterioration of their environment such as deforestation, coastal deterioration, etc. The village of Satabhaya in the Kendrapara district of Odisha in India is "one of the foremost victims of coastal erosion and submergence due to rising sea levels". The villagers were losing their homes to the encroaching sea and their cultivable lands to saline ingress, and were forced to migrate elsewhere. In Nepal, many villages in mass migration have been reported from Sivalik Hills / Chure regions due to water scarcity. Similarly, in eastern highland of Nepal 10 households in Chainpur, Sankhuwasabha, 25 households in Dharmadevi and 10 households in Panchkhapan have been forced to migrate due to water crises in their areas. Environmental motivated migrants also known as environmentally induced economic migrants: individuals who choose to leave to avoid possible future problems. (Example: someone who leaves due to declining crop productivity caused by desertification. A study conducted between 2014 and 2018 reveals that a large proportion of the deltaic populations of Volta delta in Africa, the Ganges Brahmaputra Meghna delta in Bangladesh and India, and Mahanadi delta in India cited economic reasons as a cause of their migration and only 2.8% cited environment reasons. One third of migrant households perceived an increased exposure to environmental hazards and deltaic populations associated environmental factors with more insecure livelihoods).
Other scholars have proposed various other types of migrant including: Pressured environmental migrants – slow onset This type of migrant is displaced from their environment when an event is predicted prior to when it would be imperative for the inhabitants to leave. Such events could be desertification or prolonged drought, where the people of the region are no longer able to maintain farming or hunting to provide a hospitable living environment. Imperative environmental migrants – gradual onset These are migrants that have been or will be "permanently displaced" from their homes due to environmental factors beyond their control. Temporary environmental migrants – short term, sudden onset- This includes migrants suffering from a single event (i.e. Hurricane Katrina). This type of migrant is displaced from their home state when their environment rapidly changes and disastrous events occur, such as tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters. These migrants are able to move back to the place they fled from granted that they are able to rebuild what was broken, and go on to maintain a similar quality of life to the one prior to the event.
Global statistics
There have been a number of attempts over the decades to enumerate environmental migrants and refugees. In 1988, Jodi Jacobson became the first researcher to calculate the total number of environmental migrants, stating that there were already up to 10 million environmental refugees. Drawing on 'worst-case scenarios' about sea-level rise, she argued that all forms of 'Environmental Refugees' would be six times as numerous as political refugees.Jacobson, J.L. (1988). Environmental Refugees: a Yardstick of Habitability, Worldwatch paper 86, Worldwatch Institute, Washington DC, p. 38 By 1989, Mustafa Tolba, Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme, proposed that the number of environmental refugees could exceed 50 million people if the world did not begin to work towards sustainable development.Tolba, M. K. (1989). Our biological heritage under siege. Bioscience 39, 725–728, p. 25
In the mid-1990s, British environmentalist, Norman Myers, became the most prominent proponent of this 'maximalist' school', noting that "environmental refugees will soon become the largest group of involuntary refugees". He stated that there were 25 million environmental refugees in the mid-1990s, further claiming that this figure could double by 2010, with an upper limit of 200 million by 2050.Myers, N. (1997). 'Environmental Refugees', Population and Environment 19(2): 167–82 Myers argued that the causes of environmental displacement would include desertification, lack of water, salination of irrigated lands and the depletion of biodiversity. He also hypothesized that displacement would amount to 30m in China, 30m in India, 15m in Bangladesh, 14m in Egypt, 10m in other delta areas and coastal zones, 1m in island states, and with otherwise agriculturally displaced people totaling 50m by 2050.Myers, N. and Kent, J. (1995). Environmental Exodus: an Emergent Crisis in the Global Arena, (Climate Institute: Washington DC) More recently, Myers has suggested that the figure by 2050 might be as high as 250 million.Christian Aid (2007). 'Human Tide: The Real Migration Crisis ' (CA: London), p. 6
Vikram Kolmannskog has stated that Myers' work can be 'criticized for being inconsistent, impossible to check and failing to take proper account of opportunities to adapt'.Kolmannskog, V (2008). Future Floods of Refugees, (Norwegian Refugee Council: Oslo) Myers himself has acknowledged that his figures are based upon 'heroic extrapolation'.Brown, O (2008). 'Migration and Climate Change', IOM Migration Research Series, paper no.31, www.iom.int
Places of origin
Small Island Developing States Many environmental migrants originate from Small Island Developing States (SIDS), where the effects of rising sea levels, increasing natural disasters, and the depletion of fresh water supplies have significantly affected the habitability of these states. Over 65 million people spread across 39 countries live in SIDS, many of whom are highly vulnerable to social, economic, and environmental changes. Due to their vulnerability to climate change, SIDS have become increasingly uninhabitable, which has caused many environmental migrants to flee their countries in search of a safer environment. As of 2020, an estimated 11.5 million individuals originating from SIDS were living outside their country of birth. In the future, the number of environmental migrants from these countries is projected to increase significantly due to the anticipated continuation of environmental disasters. The countries face many financial, legal, and political barriers regarding environmental migration since they are low on resources and economic stability. There are multiple islands within SIDS that are experiencing increasing levels of environmental migrants. Islands in the Pacific Ocean such as Kiribati, Vanuatu, and Fiji are in immediate danger from the threats of rising sea levels. Other Caribbean Islands such as Barbados have dealt with a significant rise in environmental migrants due to climate-related challenges. A significant portion of Caribbean environmental migrants have sought refugee in the United States, with over two-thirds of Caribbean migrants residing there as of 2020.
There have been efforts by economically advanced countries to help the SIDS through international support mechanisms such as the Green Climate Fund and Adaptation Fund. SIDS have also been active participants in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for making progress towards preventing migration issues and pushing for stronger policies. In September 2014, the SIDS met in Apia, Samoa to form the SAMOA Pathway, a ten year plan that addresses climate change faced in the islands. Political figures such as Mia Mottley emphasize the need for a major increase in investment and global support to address the limitations of SIDS and environmental migrants.