Environmental Migration and Displacement: whether chosen or forced, environmental migration is a reality of our times 

Environmental Migration and Displacement: whether chosen or forced, environmental migration is a reality of our times 

Author:  

Dina Ionesco, Head of the Migration, Environment and Climate Change Division and Mariam Traore Chazalnoel, Environmental Migration Specialist, International Organization for Migration (IOM), Geneva/New York 

Examples of how climate conditions can directly or indirectly lead to the migration of people can be found in all continents, from the hundreds of thousands of people displaced overnight by floods and hurricanes in the United States, to rural populations in the Sahel unable to access water and grazing resources. Robust scientific analysis corroborates what common sense tells us: in a world subjected to increasing threats of climate change, people are - and will continue - migrating to cope with the impact on their daily lives. The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) clearly outlines that global warming and increasing migration are linked. 

Migrating in unsafe conditions 

The issue of the European - Security and Defence Union magazine addresses the contemporary migration challenges in a Europe facing major political uncertainty. It is clear that the impacts of climate change on populations' movements are one of those issues that have an immense potential for destabilisation, not only in Europe but worldwide. Both the sudden impacts of natural disasters and the insidious slow destruction of nature and ecosystems brought about by environmental degradation lead to instances of people migrating in unsafe conditions. 

The full article is available here.