Special Issue: Climate Change and Migration
Special Issue: Climate Change and Migration
The Migration Information Source is devoting a special series of articles to addressing how a changing climate is affecting international and internal migration now and what its effects might be in the future. The impact of climate change on human movement across the globe is likely to be profound—though perhaps in significantly different ways than are perceived today. This special issue, with articles from leading scholars, examines the connection between climate change and migration through historical, scientific, and legal overviews as well as with localized case studies from the Asia Pacific, Central America, and East Africa. The special issue is accompanied by a podcast, Changing Climate, Changing Migration, hosted by Migration Information Source Editor Julian Hattem, which you can find on this website or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Climate change has had a devastating impact on many poor Central American farmers, which can contribute to food insecurity and may be prompting migration from the region's Dry Corridor. But the process is not straightforward. As this article explains, most poor farmers rely on a combination of buying, cultivating, and foraging for their food, which makes it difficult to predict how people will react to individual climate events.
Migration can help build resilience against the encroaching effects of climate change. Instead of being passive victims of environmental degradation, individuals sometimes move to gain money, knowledge, and skills that can fortify their household of origin. Migrant workers from Thailand demonstrate how and under what conditions this process works.
Climate-induced migration can lead to tensions and violence between host communities and new arrivals. This conflict can flare up at various levels, including among rural farmers and herders in relatively peaceful countries such as Tanzania.
Climate change is affecting human movement now, causing internal displacement and international migration, and will do so in the future. But the impact is often indirect, and rarely is the process as straightforward as one might think. This article provides an overview of research on how climatic hazards drive and affect migration, reviewing which types of people might migrate and under what conditions.
Coastal communities in India are confronting the effects of sea-level rise, erosion, flooding, and cyclones. This article examines displacement and migration from Odisha, the Sundarbans delta, and Majuli island in the state of Assam, examining national and state responses and the principles that could inform the design of policies to address displacement due to climate-related hazards.
