Environnemental challenges in migration and displacement contexts

Migration and displacement progressively constitute the adaptative measures for those affected by climate change and to move early and far enough away from danger resulting from environmental pressures. Today impact and environmental change present new risks to human security and conduct affected population to adjustment or survival mechanisms of last resort leading to increased unsafe mobility. 

Considering these new challenges, it is urgent to found the basis for a humanitarian and development agenda as an integral part of disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and environmental sustainability measures. 

Gaps in data and research

Current challenges for field practitioners in collecting migration and environmental evidences is the difficulty of establishing causal relations between environmental factors and mass displacement. It is particularly difficult to isolate the environmental and climatic factors from social and economic dynamics and the movement of people uprooted by natural disasters and environmental degradation is expected to have major impacts on human safety and security. Increasing number of contexts show that environmental challenges may be the source of important migratory movements.

Environmental migration and displacement may be forced and voluntary, or internal and international and an approach placing migration and environmental vulnerabilities should establish the ground for future humanitarian and development responses. Therefore, the complexity of environmental changes and impact of mixed migration flows must integrate -in addition to those migrating - peoples who were unable to move. 

Environmental changes and disaster should not be seen as a sol root factor for displacement and migration as from another social phenomenon. Migration and displacement often occur among communities exposed to tension affected by conflict around land and resources impacted by environmental impact on water and food production as it affected the Horn of Africa. Limited resilience capacity of receiving communities affected by large scale displacements can amplify existing vulnerabilities. 

Gaps in policy and operational response 

Gaps in policy and operational response remain for those people displaced by climate change and the recognition that migration is a multi-causal reality require policy work and new strategic vision in the area of migration and displacement from emergency response toward durable solutions and recovery processes. 

The International Community has made policy progresses in recognizing the nexus between migration, environment and climate change, including within the process for the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction or the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Although, the normative framework for people displaced by the effects of climate change inside their own country is better developed than that for people displaced outside their country and it is important to develop evidence-based advocacy, as well as technical expertise and communication campaigns to support the rights of peoples affected by migration and forced displacement behind the boundaries of their country and support regional dialogue on these issues and bring human mobility into other key policy processes, promoting coherence across key thematic policy areas. 

For more information, please refer to:

·         the IOM Environmental Migration Portal: https://environmentalmigration.iom.int/ioms-engagement-migration-environment-and-climate-change

·         Forced Migration Review Issue 31 October 2008: https://www.fmreview.org/issues