Climate Change and Environmental Migration: View from the IOM

Does Climate Change Cause Migration? It’s Complicated: The relationship between climate change and migration is long and complex. Human civilizations have been affected by environmental conditions for centuries, but we should be wary of arguments that huge numbers of people are inevitably destined to migrate... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

29 min listen

The Many Possible Futures of Climate-Linked Migration: Climate change is already affecting how, whether, and where people migrate. But environmental change is likely to become more extreme in the coming decades, unless the world takes serious action now. How might changes made now impact what future migratio... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

23 min listen

How Climate-Linked Food Insecurity Shapes Migration: Reliable access to food—or lack thereof—can affect an individual’s decision to migrate. Climate change has the ability to exacerbate food insecurity, especially for farmers and others who live off the land, which can have repercussions for human mobility... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

29 min listen

One Billion Climate Migrants? Not So Fast: There are a lot of predictions about how many people will migrate in response to climate change. Depending on where you look, the next few decades could see hundreds of millions – or even more than a billion – people pick up and move. We asked Julia Bloc... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

26 min listen

Purposeful and Coordinated: Climate Change and Managed Retreat in India: Confronting environmental change, whole communities sometimes relocate from one area to another. This purposeful, coordinated movement, while currently rare, is referred to as managed retreat. In this episode Architesh Panda, from the London School of Ec... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

24 min listen

Talking Money: Climate Finance and Migration: Billions of dollars are being spent on projects to help communities mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, including those at risk of being displaced by environmental events. This episode features Timo Schmidt, from the Migration Policy Ins... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

24 min listen

The Benefits of Climate Migration: Popular discussions usually frame climate change-induced migration negatively, often as a strategy of last resort. But migrating abroad can also be an effective way to build resilience against the impacts of climate change. This episode discusses how mig... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

31 min listen

Retreating from Climate Disaster in the United States: In Western countries, a common narrative has developed that only poor or developing nations will have to confront human displacement caused by climate change. But communities in the United States and elsewhere have repeatedly moved because of environment... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

27 min listen

Migrate or Adapt? How Pacific Islanders Respond to Climate Change: Among the earliest examples of the disruptions that climate change can bring, some low-lying island countries in the Pacific Ocean are facing serious threats from rising sea levels and coastal erosion. Over the long term, atoll nations such as Kiribati, ... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

26 min listen

Who Manages Climate Migration? Evolving Global Governance: Climate change and international migration both are global issues with aspects that countries try to manage through treaties, pacts, and other types of agreements. But most of the global governance frameworks that exist for climate-induced migration requ... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

26 min listen

No “Climate Refugees,” But Still a Role for the UN Refugee Agency: Technically, people forced to move because of climate disasters are not considered “refugees.” But the UN refugee agency, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, still takes climate issues into account, and since 2020 Andrew Harper has been its special ad... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

27 min listen

Impacts of Extreme Heat: Global Warming and Migration: Global warming and extreme heat are behind many of the phenomena linked to climate change. Hotter weather also has an impact on migration and on migrants, particularly in destinations such as the Middle East and parts of the United States. In recent year... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

24 min listen

Is Climate Change Driving Migration from Central America?: Hundreds of thousands of migrants have left Central America in recent years, and climate extremes have been identified as one of the factors that might be driving this movement, along with elements such as political instability and violence. In this epis... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

26 min listen

In from the Cold? Should Climate Migrants Get Special Legal Migration Pathways?: People displaced by climate change are not eligible for refugee status. But should countries extend any sort of legal protections to them? Our guest, Ama Francis, a climate displacement project strategist with the International Refugee Assistance Pro... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

24 min listen

Climate Change and Environmental Migration: View from the IOM: The UN migration agency, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in 2015 created a special division responsible for migration-related issues involving the environment and climate change. The division just got a new leader and is looking to em... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

30 min listen

Climate Change in the World’s Fastest Growing Economy: Guyana is a small country in South America that undoubtedly will be greatly transformed by the recent discovery of massive offshore oil reserves. Extremely vulnerable to climate change, with predictions that its capital will be underwater by 2030, Gu... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

29 min listen

A Note of Caution about Exaggerating the Climate-Migration Link: Concerns that large numbers of people will be displaced by climate change and head to wealthy countries in North America and Europe are often misplaced, according to migration scholar Hein de Haas. These types of narratives can tap into anti-immigrant se... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

26 min listen

Climate Migration to Cities: Does the Move to Urban Areas Reduce Risk?: Increasingly, human beings are city dwellers. More than half the global population lives in an urban area, and the rates are increasing. Some new urban residents may be fleeing rural areas vulnerable to the impact of climate change. But are they like... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

22 min listen

A Century of Climate Migration Upheaval? An Audacious Prediction for the Future: Is the world facing a chaotic century of mass migration spurred by climate change? As the planet’s temperature warms, award-winning environmental journalist Gaia Vince thinks so. In her book, Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our Worl... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

28 min listen

Before the Storm: Getting Out in Front of Climate Displacement: Humanitarian organizations often race to help people affected by natural disasters. But what if they could act before catastrophes occur to mitigate disaster-induced forced migration? In this episode, we discuss this kind of anticipatory action and h... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

32 min listen

Are Orderly Borders Possible in an Era of Rising Climate Migration?: When large numbers of asylum seekers and other migrants arrive at the borders of Western countries without prior authorization to enter, they are often treated as “spontaneous” arrivals. But migration is almost never truly spontaneous. Usually, human... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

28 min listen

Are Climate Migrants Treated Differently than Other Migrants?: Do host communities respond differently to people migrating because of environmental impacts compared to refugees fleeing war or migrants seeking work? Research suggests the answer is yes. Multiple factors affect relations between communities and new arr... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

27 min listen

Are the Pacific’s Climate Migration Experiments a Preview for the World?: A landmark climate migration deal inked in late 2023 would allow hundreds of climate-vulnerable residents of the small island nation of Tuvalu to move to Australia. The pact is the latest step for a region that is at the leading edge globally in poli... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

31 min listen

Trapped Populations: When Climate Migration Isn’t Possible: Facing the adverse impacts of climate change, many people are better off migrating, whether within their country or internationally, at least for a short time. Yet for a variety of reasons, migration is not always possible. This episode of our podcas... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

31 min listen

What Exactly Is Climate Migration?: Migration is complex, and rarely is there only one single factor that prompts people to leave their homes. That is especially true when climate change is involved, since its impacts on internal and international migration are often indirect and hard ... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

31 min listen

Climate Migration 101: Climate migration sounds simple. It’s not. This episode of the podcast speaks with Lawrence Huang, MPI’s lead researcher on climate change and migration, to answer the most common questions around one of the least understood dynamics in human movemen... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

27 min listen

Is Climate Migration a Homeland Security Threat?: Can climate-driven international migration pose a security threat? Former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff thinks so, but not necessarily because of the migrants themselves. Irregular migration prompted by climate events can empower ... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

25 min listen

Moving Mountains: Climate Migration in High Altitudes: Many people are leaving rural mountain areas around the globe because their livelihoods are becoming less profitable and the threat of landslides and other disasters is increasing. As the impacts of climate change grow, these mountain residents may f... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

26 min listen

Confronting the Ethical Questions around Climate Change and Migration: Do countries that are major polluters have a moral responsibility to aid people displaced by hurricanes, sea-level rise, and other events driven or exacerbated by climate change? What form might that responsibility take? For this episode, we are join... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

29 min listen

Could a Loss and Damage Fund Compensate Climate Migrants?: The world is grappling with the idea of restitution for people who have been negatively affected by the impacts of climate change—potentially including displacement within a country or across international borders. World leaders are at the early stag... by Changing Climate, Changing Migration

26 min listen

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Climate Change and Environmental Migration: View from the IOM

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