Conclusion: Linking Migration, Environmental Change and Adaptation — Lessons Learnt

Abstract

This book has set out to contribute to the discussion of the relationship between climate change, or more precisely environmental change, and migration. In the Introduction, the editors identify three pitfalls that have accompanied and complicated the debate from the outset until today: first, a discourse that is foremost characterised by sudden disasters and natural hazards that call for immediate action; second, blurred terminologies that do not determine clearly what is meant by “migration”, and especially by climate change-related migration; and third, the jumping or elision of scales and the tendency to overlook the integrating force of a regional perspective. In addition to these, the highly politicised nature of the debate adds to its complexity. Questions of relocation and resettlement, too, seem to urge governments in many places of the world to engage in migration studies.