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Securitizing Water, Climate, and Migration in Israel, Jordan, and Syria

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Abstract

Protracted droughts and scarce water resources, combined with internal and cross-border migration, have contributed to the securitization of discourses around migration and water in much of the Middle East. However, there is no clear understanding of the conditions under which water, climate change, and migration are conceived of as security concerns or of their policy implications. This article explores the different means through which Israel, Jordan, and Syria have framed issues of water, climate change, and migration as national security concerns. Based upon an analysis of governmental and publicly available documents, coupled with field interviews with Israeli and Jordanian policymakers, experts, and nongovernmental organizations, we identify two different framings of the water–climate–migration nexus, depending on whether migration is largely external or internal. In Israel and Jordan, concern with influxes of external migrants elevated migration as a security issue in part through impacts on already-scarce water resources. In Syria, where severe drought in the early 2000s prompted large-scale internal migration, officials downplayed connections between scarce water resources, drought, and internal migration, part of a broader pattern of rural neglect. Unlike much of the conventional literature that has posited a linear relationship between climate change, decreasing water availability, and migration, we provide a more robust picture of the water–climate–migration nexus that shows how securitized framings take different forms and produce several unintended consequences.

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Notes

  1. According to the 1951 Convention, a refugee is someone ‘owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it’ (UNHCR 2010). It is important to note that the Convention also does not to apply to refugees from Palestine who fall under the auspices of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

  2. Also see Warner (2012) for an analysis of securitization within the context of contestation over the Ilisu dam.

  3. The Ministry of Environmental Protection established the ICCIC in 2011 to coordinate efforts on assembling knowledge on climate change that will feed into the development of a national adaptation plan. See: http://www.sviva.gov.il/English/env_topics/climatechange/Adaptation/Pages/ClimateChangeInformationCenter.aspx.

  4. Zawahri’s interview with researcher with African Refugee Development Center, Tel Aviv, 20 December 2012.

  5. Zawahri’s interview with anonymous highly placed government official, Amman, 22 April 2012.

  6. Zawahri’s interview with Secretary General Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Amman, 28 April 2012.

  7. Zawahri’s interview with representative from GIZ, Amman, 24 April 2012.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Zawahri’s interview with government official, Amman, 28 April 2012.

  10. Zawahri’s interview with former Minister of Water and Irrigation, Amman, 15 May 2012.

  11. Zawahri’s interview with Friends of the Earth Middle East representative, Amman, 25 April 2012 and with anonymous government official, Amman, 14 May 2012.

  12. This figure does not include the descendants of refugees that are born in Jordan and have become Jordanian citizens of Palestinian origin.

  13. Zawahri’s interview with representative from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem, 5 June 2012.

  14. Zawahri’s interview with GIZ representative, Amman, 24 April 2012.

  15. While much attention has centred on decreasing surface water availability in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins, precipitation accounts for 68.5 % of available freshwater in Syria (Erian 2011, 16).

Abbreviations

GMST:

Global mean surface temperature

ICCIC:

Israel Climate Change Information Centre

NGO:

Nongovernmental organization

NOAA:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

UNEP:

United Nations Environment Programme

UNHCR:

United Nations HIgh Commissioner on Refugees

UNRWA:

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

USA:

United States of America

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, POB 90328, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Erika Weinthal

  2. Department of Political Science, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Neda Zawahri

  3. Department of Political Science, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA

    Jeannie Sowers

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  1. Erika Weinthal
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  2. Neda Zawahri
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  3. Jeannie Sowers
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Correspondence to Erika Weinthal.

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The authors share equal responsibility for the content and analysis herein. This article is part of an ongoing collaboration, and we have chosen to rotate authorship on the articles we generate.

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Weinthal, E., Zawahri, N. & Sowers, J. Securitizing Water, Climate, and Migration in Israel, Jordan, and Syria. Int Environ Agreements 15, 293–307 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-015-9279-4

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