Abstract
Background: It is predicted that by 2050 more than 250 million people will have to relocate as a result of climate-related change to their home environment. The existential threat posed by anthropogenic phenomena such as forest fires, floods, sea level rise, drought, and intensified weather events (e.g. tropical storms) has caused a new type of migrant to emerge. Within academic literature, these migrants are referred to as climate migrants, environmental migrants, or eco migrants, among other terms. These individuals’ migration journey and this journey’s impact on their mental health is currently an understudied research area. This paper summarizes the mental health challenges climate migrants face via a narrative review. Methods: Google Scholar was used as the main search database throughout May, 2020 until authors determined data saturation had been reached. Grey literature was also included. Sources were included if they focused directly on evaluating environmental migrants and their mental health experiences. Academic sources must have been peer-reviewed and published within the past 10 years. Information was coded and evaluated according to the three migration journey stages of before, after, and during relocation. Results: Main findings include that the slow or sudden degradation of one’s surroundings can cause the onset of mental health disorders that are later exacerbated by challenges faced when migrating, such as lack of access to health services. Mental health challenges faced upon reaching destination communities consist mainly of social marginalization and disruption of social ties. Lastly, action items for health systems are outlined and the need for more research on the mental wellbeing of climate migrants throughout their migration journey is stressed. Conclusions: This review is an urgent call to policymakers, health professionals, and researchers to strengthen health systems by making them more climate resilient and inclusive towards environmental migrants.
Highlights
Our era’s new migrants: Who are they? Escalation in anthropogenic greenhouse gases is increasing both the frequency and the intensity of extreme weather conditions and natural disasters (Schwerdtle et al, 2018). Those who are displaced by these changes or by their implications are often identified as climate migrants, environmental migrants, or eco migrants (International Organization for Migration, n.d.)
Search result pages one through six were reviewed to identify papers that met the following inclusion criteria: 1) The paper centered on environmental migrants as the population of focus for the study; 2) The manuscript directly discussed mental health experiences faced by climate migrants; 3) Published information was peer-reviewed and reliable; 4) Article had been released within the last 10 years and was thereby relatively recent
It is important to recognize that females’ mental health is all the more endangered by eco migration because they are exposed to additional traumatic events such as lack of autonomy upon widowhood, gender based violence, and sexual exploitation (Hasan et al, 2020; McMichael et al, 2012; Nahar et al, 2014; Palinkas, 2019; Piguet et al, 2011, p.34)
Summary
1. Pablo Daniel Estrella Porter , Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ, Quito, Ecuador. 2. Mithila Faruque , Bangladesh University of Health Sciences (BUHS), Dhaka, Bangladesh. Any reports and responses or comments on the article can be found at the end of the article. Keywords Mental health, migration, climate migrant, environmental migrant, eco migrant. This article is included in the Climate Action gateway
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