As human mobility has reached unprecedented levels in an era of accelerating global climate change, it is acknowledged that many cases of human migration in the context of climate change are forced or involuntary, particularly where adaptation measures have failed to achieve sufficient resiliency of communities against disasters.
There are also many cases where migration is, itself, a voluntary adaptive measure to secure otherwise unattainable physical safety and life-sustaining resources.
But, although climate migration is often approached as a human rights issue, it is noted that the public health community has been less unified and vocal on the topic.
This paper, developed by the World Federation of Public Health Associations’ Environmental Health Working Group, seeks to address this gap by analyzing adaptive climate migration through a public health lens.
The authors argue that creating an enabling environment for adaptive climate migration is not only a human rights imperative but also a public health necessity. They support this claim by showing how such environments can strengthen core public health services and functions, as outlined in the Global Charter for the Public’s Health.
Learn more about this study here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmh.2023.100174
Reference
Marcus, H., Hanna, L., Tait, P., Stone, S., Wannous, C., & A product of the World Federation of Public Health Associations Environmental Health Working Group (2023). Climate change and the public health imperative for supporting migration as adaptation. Journal of migration and health, 7, 100174