Climate Migration Research Articles

Climate Migration. Cultural Aspects of Climate Change

Abstract This paper argues that climate migration-in case of climate refugees in a strict sense-differs from other forms of migration not only by its finality but also by the fact that entire communities are forced to resettle elsewhere. For such communities to migrate with dignity-that is in a way that protects the social bases of their self-respect-their host countries are required to ensure the necessary institutional arrangements enabling these people to become full and equal members within a reasonably short time. Ensuring that their equal participation rights are not merely formal but have ‘fair value’ requires taking cultural differences into account to ensure that they do not pose substantial disadvantages for participation in the political and social sphere.

Migration in the context of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change: insights from analogues

Migration is one of the variety of ways by which human populations adapt to environmental changes. The study of migration in the context of anthropogenic climate change is often approached using the concept of vulnerability and its key functional elements: exposure, system sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. This article explores the interaction of climate change and vulnerability through review of case studies of dry-season migration in the West African Sahel, hurricane-related population displacements in the Caribbean basin, winter migration of 'snowbirds' to the US Sun-belt, and 1930s drought migration on the North American Great Plains. These examples are then used as analogues for identifying general causal, temporal, and spatial dimensions of climate migration, along with potential considerations for policy-making and future research needs.

Migration trends in North Africa

In Part I, the determinants of past and current migration flows from the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries to OECD countries are discussed. In particular, the influence of economic, demographic and political factors on the size and composition of migration flows from North Africa to OECD countries is put forward using two complementary econometric analyses. In Part II, the economic and demographic prospects in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia are discussed focusing on the key determinants identified previously as important driving forces of future migration trends (GDP per capita, poverty levels, and demographic factors). In Part III, an attempt to assess the impact of climate change on future migration patterns in the Maghreb is carried out. This section looks at ways that climate change might lead to increased forced migration, presents some predictions for numbers of future climate migrants, examines the uncertainties with these predictions and lays out different tentative scenarios on future numbers of forced migrants.

The Ethical Implications of Sea-Level Rise Due to Climate Change

Does humanity have a moral obligation toward the estimated millions of individuals who will be displaced from their homes over the course of this century primarily due to sea-level rise (SLR) as the earth’s climate warms? If there are indeed sound reasons for the world to act on their behalf, what form should these actions take? In this paper, we try to develop the ethical basis for the international community, first, to recognize that displaced persons, and in particular those whose nation-states will have become physically nonexistent or will face an unendurable burden, should have a special right to free movement to other countries; and, second, to formulate institutional means for providing them political, social, and economic rights. The fairest solution, we propose, is for the international community to grant, in the first instance, the individual right to migrate to safe countries for those who will be displaced forcibly by SLR. We then recommend that an international treaty begin to address this issue so that climate migrants and future exiles will be able to find homes well in advance of the actual emergency.

Global Human Rights Awareness, Education and Democratization

The 1990s was the era of human rights awareness, democratic transitions, and growing involvement of international organizations and the nongovernmental sector in human rights education (HRE). The UN Decade for HRE from 1995–2004 was not only born out of the initiatives and pressures of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) but it also actively triggered many new private initiatives and commitments by governments to increase HRE. New information technologies, globalization, and the rise of civil society paved the way for new strategies and methods to disseminate the idea of human rights worldwide. With this in mind, two aspects will be discussed in this article. First, how HRE can become an integral part of all formal education systems. In this respect I will discuss the role of governments and state responsibility. Second, there were shifts and developments that made HRE an adaptable and coherent education concept oriented towards future challenges such as climate changes or migration. Coherent international concepts and a clear definition of HRE should help avoid the misuse of education in human rights for political or ideological reasons.

Climate Change and Migrations of People during the Jin Dynasty

Climate Change and Migrations of People during the Jin Dynasty

The Social Impacts of Climate Change in South Asia

In this paper, we focus on an especially important set of social impacts resulting from climate change in South Asia, namely the potential displacement of vast numbers of people as a consequence mainly of sea level rise along the coasts and secondarily from drought in rural areas. We examine these impacts through the use of scenarios involving alternative assumptions about whether or not effective policies will be developed in time, given what we know now about the physical changes that are likely to take place. The climate crisis that is likely to unfold in South Asia will create profound challenges. With a 5-metre sea level rise, there will be about 125 million climate migrants in this region alone with little or no legal standing under current international law. In fact the 75 million or so from Bangladesh will be especially vulnerable, as their entire nation-state becomes non-viable as an entity, with most of its land inundated and its economy defunct.

Origin of freshwater fauna of the North-Atlantic islands: present distribution in relation to climate and possible migration routes

Origin of freshwater fauna of the North-Atlantic islands: present distribution in relation to climate and possible migration routes

International Co-operation in Health. Martin McKee, Paul Garner and Robin Stott, eds.

International Co-operation in Health Martin McKee, Paul Garner and Robin Stott, eds Published in 2001 by Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. ISBN 0 19 263198 5 (hardback); Price £39.50. The book International Co-operation in Health represents an important contribution to a growing but scant literature on the subject of globalization and its effects on health and health care. More specifically, the book seeks to inform and educate (public) health professionals about diverse threats to health on a global scale. These include risk factors that have traditionally been studied by epidemiologists (e.g. infectious diseases, tobacco, and diet) as well as other global phenomena that affect health but have not been traditionally studied in this context (e.g. climate change and migration). As the editors point out, current epidemiological methods that dominate public health research are insufficient to understand the relationship between globalization and health. Theoretical frameworks and methods of inquiry drawn from political science, sociology, and economics are also required. Several authors draw on these approaches to analyze select social, political, and economic forces operating at the international level and the health consequences of these global phenomena. However, not all contributors make these frameworks equally explicit. The analysis of globalization and health would also benefit from concepts and methods drawn from the study of international relations. Although not stated as such, the most common theoretical perspective held by the editors and contributors to this volume seems to be that of a pluralist state and an interdependent international system where diverse groups can compete for influence and participate in a system of global governance [1]. It is within …

Early Paleogene climatic fluctuations and migrations of microbiota in the East European realm

Early Paleogene climatic fluctuations and migrations of microbiota in the East European realm

The Law of Peoples

The Law of Peoples

Variation among the Aureoid Senecios of North America: A geohistorical interpretation

The Aureoid group ofSenecio (Asteraceae) includes 59 species, most of which occur in western temperate North America. They share a syndrome of traits and have notably imprecise species boundaries. They are separable into three imperfectly marked subgroups, the Aurei, Lobati, and Tomentosi, each of which centers about one or two widespread and variable species. The Aurei have Arcto-Tertiary affinities and are regarded as primitive. Subsequent evolutionary diversification produced the Tomentosi in the cool, dry regions of the northern Cordillera and the Lobati in the warmer cordilleran regions of the Great Basin and Southwestern deserts. Certain Eastern outliers are regarded as relicts of migrations eastward at the front of a receding glacier, whereas others are relicts of migrations during the Post-glacial Hypsithermal period. The apparent combination of a pliable cytological structure, obligate outbreeding, and good seed dispersal has given the Aureoid senecios an ability to hybridize and presumably to introgress easily, although direct evidence is scant. Continual climatic change and subsequent migrations of plants have produced repeated meetings and introgressions among related Aureoid species, which in turn maintain the notably blurred species boundaries of the group.

On Migration and Risk in LDCs

The authors develop the hypothesis that aversion to risk rather than expectations of higher income is the primary motivation for rural-urban migration in developing countries. This hypothesis maintains that an optimizing risk-averse small-farmer family will try to place a family member in the urban sector in order to diversify its income portfolio. An additional hypothesis related to risk is also considered at the individual rather than the family level. (ANNOTATION)