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The environment and refugees: theoretical and policy issues.
Population Bulletin of the United Nations
|January 1, 1995
Summary
Environmental factors increasingly drive mass migration, though "environmental refugees" lack formal protection. Recognizing the complex, multivariate nature of migration is crucial for understanding and responding to these movements.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Sociology
- International Law
Background:
- The 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol do not define "environmental refugees."
- Environmental factors are increasingly recognized as interacting with other drivers of mass human migration.
- There is a growing need for international humanitarian response to environmentally induced population movements.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the role of environmental factors in triggering migration.
- To highlight the multivariate nature of migration phenomena.
- To bridge the gap in legal and humanitarian frameworks regarding environmental displacement.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of existing definitions and conventions.
- Analysis of the interplay between environmental, political, economic, social, and biopsychological factors in migration.
- Conceptualization of migration as a continuum between proactive and reactive, and internal and international.
Main Results:
- Environmental factors are significant, albeit often unacknowledged, drivers of migration.
- The distinction between internal and international migration can be incidental in cases of environmental displacement.
- A spectrum exists between planned and forced migration due to environmental pressures.
Conclusions:
- Current international refugee law is insufficient to address environmental migration.
- A comprehensive understanding of migration requires acknowledging its multivariate and continuous nature.
- Policy and humanitarian frameworks must adapt to include environmental drivers of displacement.