Abstract
Climate change is relatively new to the international discourse on migration and development. The impacts of climate change on migration have been variously debated for almost 20 years now, but there continues to be insufficiently informed debate on the links with development, both as cause and effect. The chapter reviews current knowledge and discussion about how climate change may affect migration and the implications of this for adaptation, development, and immigration policies. The chapter draws on the discussions at the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Puerto Vallarta and the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change summit in Cancun, as they pertain to the interconnections between climate change and migration. The chapter makes recommendations to policy makers in the migration and development fields for specific actions to ensure in-depth qualitative and quantitative research in specific hot spots, dialogue and exchange on good practices, participatory policy planning, the involvement of affected communities in human mobility solutions, and proactive adaptation strategies that deal with migration potentials and impacts in development-sensitive ways.
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- 1.
Public Law 101–649 (Immigration Act of November 29, 1990), Section 302.
- 2.
Aliens Act (2005: 716), Issued September 29, 2005, with amendments: up to and including Swedish Code of Statutes 2009:16; Chapter 4. Refugees and persons otherwise in need of protection.
- 3.
New Zealand’s Pacific Access Category (PAC) is sometimes described as climate change and migration legislation. Under PAC, 75 people from Tuvalu, 75 from Kiribati, and 250 from Tonga (islands subject to rising sea levels) may immigrate to New Zealand each year. The program is based on employment, however, not environmental factors. The immigrants must be between 18 and 45 years old, have an offer of employment in New Zealand, have English skills, meet minimum income requirement, undergo a health check, and have no history of illegal entrance. The program is not intended to provide access to those who may be most vulnerable to climate change-induced displacement—the elderly or the infirm, for example.
- 4.
For example, see Laczko and Aghazarm (2009).
- 5.
UNEP’s program related to climate change and migration has three principal objectives:
1. Research, hot spot identification, and assessment of high priority vulnerable countries and subnational regions for targeted UNEP assistance on ecosystems management and climate change adaptation
2. Awareness raising in the international humanitarian and development community of the importance of environmental sustainability in rural development and its role in forced migration movements
3. Country project development to assist in policy direction, plans, and programs in identified priority countries and subnational regions toward ecosystems management and climate change adaptation
- 6.
The background paper was written by Ronald Skeldon of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) with input from Susan Martin at Georgetown University. Martin and Warner wrote the background paper for the parallel discussions that took place during the Civil Society Days.
- 7.
GFMD (2010). “Roundtable 3: Policy and institutional coherence to address the relationship between migration and development.” General Rapporteur’s Report to Plenary. Available at http://www.gfmd.org/en/documents-library/mexico-2010.html
- 8.
The inadequacies of temporary protection, as evidenced in the Montserrat case study, highlight the potential problems that these situations present. It should be noted that UNHCR does have a mandate for statelessness and has reported some success in reducing its incidence in the past few years. In discussing statelessness, however, UNHCR does not refer to climate change as a potential cause; rather, it cites the following reasons: “Statelessness occurs for a variety of reasons including discrimination against minority groups in nationality legislation, failure to include all residents in the body of citizens when a state becomes independent (state succession) and conflicts of laws between states.” See UNHCR, “Searching for citizenship”, Available at http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c155.html. Also, see UNHCR (2009).
- 9.
For arguments in favor of a convention, see Hodgkinson et al. (2010).
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Martin, S., Warner, K. (2012). Climate Change, Migration, and Development. In: Omelaniuk, I. (eds) Global Perspectives on Migration and Development. Global Migration Issues, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4110-2_10
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