European Institute for Human Rights

Tag: Policy

  • Global Climate Migration is a Story of Who and not Just How Many

    Global Climate Migration is a Story of Who and not Just How Many

    Understanding the impact of climate change on human migration is critical for policymakers, but it can both incentivize people to migrate and reduce their ability to move, making its effect ambiguous.

    Following this evidence, the authors propose an approach to studying migration that combines causal inference methods with cross-validation techniques to reliably estimate effects of weather on migration within and across borders, an approach that highlights the key role of migrant demographics in the weather-migration relationship.

    They show that allowing climate effects to vary by age and education improves predictive performance more than fivefold compared with assuming uniform effects. This demographic heterogeneity explains much of the variation in migration responses.

    Their projections suggest that climate change will have much larger effects on future cross-border migration for most demographic groups than the average effect indicates. However, differing responses across groups tend to offset one another, shaping the overall migration outcome.

    Learn more about this paper here: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62969-3

    Reference

    Benveniste, H., Huybers, P. & Proctor, J. Global climate migration is a story of who and not just how many. Nat Commun 16, 7752 (2025)

  • The European Union’s Governmentality of Climate-Induced Migration: A Need for Reconceptualization

    The European Union’s Governmentality of Climate-Induced Migration: A Need for Reconceptualization

    Given the significant, irreversible impact of climate change on human migration, policy corresponding to the specific needs of these situations would already be expected to exist. But, although the EU is a leading actor in climate governance, the author finds that its policymaking reflects a more limited and fragmented approach to climate migration.

    So, in this study, how the European Union conceptualizes climate-induced migration is examined, a growing global challenge that calls for more inclusive protection frameworks.

    Using content analysis, the author examined 62 legal and policy documents published between 2009 and 2024. The use of climate change and migration-related concepts, both separately and interrelatedly, is analysed using MAXQDA through both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The research was also supported by Michel Foucault’s governmentality perspective.

    Findings show that the EU’s conceptualization of climate-induced migration and its use of a human rights–based approach remain limited. It is concluded that the EU’s governmentality of climate-induced migration is characterized by slow and constrained policymaking, and the need for a more holistic and rights-based framework is highlighted.

    Learn more about this paper here: https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.70095

    Reference

    Bozkaya, Ö. (2025). The European Union’s Governmentality of Climate-Induced Migration: A Need for Reconceptualisation. International Migration, 63(5)

  • Preparing for Climate Migration and Integration: A Policy and Research Agenda

    Preparing for Climate Migration and Integration: A Policy and Research Agenda

    Recent research on climate migration is reviewed in this paper, including projections of future migrant numbers, while introducing a typology that distinguishes strategic migrants, disaster migrants, managed relocation, and trapped populations.

    Drawing on migration theory and research on immigrant and refugee integration, the author proposes that wealthy countries allocate additional visas to poorer countries affected by climate change, partly as a form of climate justice.

    These visas could enable strategic migrants to establish social networks that facilitate further migration and eventually support disaster migrants and relocated communities through co-ethnic relations.

    The author also draws on refugee studies to identify key questions about how best to integrate disaster migrants in the future.

    Additionally, the growing link between climate denialism and anti-immigrant sentiment within right-wing movements is examined.
    It is argued that planning for the successful integration of climate migrants is essential, not only for humanitarian reasons but also to maintain the social trust needed for effective climate mitigation.

    Learn more about this paper here: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2024.2438449

    Reference

    Waters, M. C. (2025). Preparing for climate migration and integration: a policy and research agenda. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 51(1), 4–23

  • Climate Migration: A Gendered Perspective

    Climate Migration: A Gendered Perspective

    This article examines climate-induced migration through a gender-sensitive perspective, drawing attention to how pre-existing social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities create a greater likelihood of being forced to move due to the impacts of climate change.

    This can be particularly true for women and girls who face intersectional and structural discrimination, which shapes their resilience, adaptation, and migration experiences.

    This gender dimension remains largely overlooked in research, data collection, and legal frameworks on climate change migration. The lack of gender-sensitive statistics and legal protections contributes to ongoing invisibility, vulnerability, and inadequate protection for affected populations.

    Therefore, the author analyzes the potential, recent developments, and limitations of international legal frameworks in addressing climate migration from a gender-responsive perspective, emphasizing the need to integrate gender considerations into protection mechanisms for climate migrants.

    Learn more about this study here: https://doi.org/10.3233/EPL-239008

    Reference

    Borràs-Pentinat, S. (2023). Climate Migration: A Gendered Perspective. Environmental Policy and Law, 53(5-6), 385-399

  • Climate Change, Migration, and Civil Strife

    Climate Change, Migration, and Civil Strife

    In this theoretical paper, the intersection of human migration and climate change is investigated, highlighting growing evidence that environmental and climatic changes act as triggers for both voluntary and forced displacement. The authors argue that this connection calls for anticipatory and proactive engagement at global, regional, and local levels.

    Recent evidence indicates that climate change is likely to displace large populations from rural to urban areas, with onward migration occurring when urban centers also become uninhabitable.

    Climate change is increasingly recognized as a “threat multiplier” that intensifies existing vulnerabilities and disproportionately affects already at-risk populations. Worst-case projections suggest that nearly one-third of the world’s population could be exposed to extremely hot, uninhabitable climates under business-as-usual scenarios.

    The authors conclude that current migration regimes, originally designed for post–World War II Europe, are inadequate for addressing climate-related population movements. They emphasize the need to use existing legal instruments to support new local, regional, and international protection arrangements, particularly since most environmental migrants will remain within their own countries.

    Migration is therefore reframed not only as a consequence of climate instability but also as an adaptation strategy, and it is stressed that climate-driven mobility must be anticipated, planned for, and supported.

    Learn more about this paper here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-020-00291-4

    Reference

    Balsari, S., Dresser, C. & Leaning, J. Climate Change, Migration, and Civil Strife. Curr Envir Health Rpt 7, 404–414 (2020)

  • Climate Change and Displacement: Protecting ‘Climate Refugees’ within a Framework of Justice and Human Rights

    Climate Change and Displacement: Protecting ‘Climate Refugees’ within a Framework of Justice and Human Rights

    In this paper, climate-induced migration is examined as a complex and far-reaching consequence of climate change, with forced displacement affecting millions worldwide.

    The author notices that although the link between climate change and migration was recognized as early as the first IPCC report in 1990, displacement was only formally included in climate policy frameworks decades later.

    A discussion is then presented on the scale and complexity of climate-related displacement, while paying particular attention to small island states and the climate–conflict–displacement nexus.
    It reviews the international legal framework for political refugees and highlights the legal gaps that leave climate migrants without adequate protection, alongside recent developments, such as the Global Compact on Migration and the Task Force on Climate Displacement.

    The author argues that while existing human rights law offers some protection, it is insufficient to meet the needs of climate migrants. Urgent international action is called for, to establish a dedicated legal regime, emphasizing that major greenhouse gas emitters have a responsibility to support displaced populations, especially those from small island states facing the loss of their homelands.

    Learn more about this paper here: https://doi.org/10.4337/jhre.2020.01.04

    Reference

    Atapattu, S. (2020). Climate change and displacement: protecting ‘climate refugees’ within a framework of justice and human rights. Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, 11(1), 86-113

  • Human Rights and Climate Displacement and Migration

    Human Rights and Climate Displacement and Migration

    Initiatives that offer opportunities to develop more effective, practical, and politically viable strategies for addressing climate-related migration are discussed in this article.

    It is emphasized how human rights law already provides robust protection for migrants moving under a wide range of circumstances, but climate change is expected to continue increasing both forced displacement and voluntary migration, within countries and across borders.

    Migration to urban areas or abroad can reduce pressure on households by easing resource constraints and generating remittances for those who remain behind.

    The author argues how the scale of future displacement will largely depend on government action to reduce carbon emissions, strengthen community resilience, mitigate climate risks, and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

    Learn more about this article here: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315312576-8/human-rights-climate-displacement-migration-alice-thomas?context=ubx&refId=fd54b6b6-464b-4968-b43b-38b71c31bcb6

    Reference

    Thomas, Alice (2018), “Human rights and climate displacement and migration”,
    Routledge Handbook of Human Rights and Climate Governance, 2018 (1), Routledge

  • Climate Justice Without Freedom: Assessing Legal and Political Responses to Climate Change and Forced Migration

    Climate Justice Without Freedom: Assessing Legal and Political Responses to Climate Change and Forced Migration

    As storm surges, flooding, heatwaves, and prolonged drought, as ever more regular features of life under deteriorating climate conditions, are unmistakably violent, and their effects on the lives of vulnerable human populations and ecosystems across the world are devastating.

    At the same time, a legal order that denies the victims of such ecological persecution a safe haven, no matter how great its use of force (e.g., detention, arrest, forced return) cannot, by definition, be violent. This assumption is challenged in this paper.

    It argues that legal instruments are increasingly used to exclude those displaced by climatic conditions and to deny them sufficient normative status to ensure their safety.

    The author calls for a new critical normative understanding of the relationship between climate change, violence, justice, and law, an approach that would reassess the democratic justifications for existing policies and reaffirm the legal and political status of climate-displaced people as equal members of the international community.

    Learn more about this paper here: https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431015579967

    Reference

    Skillington, T. (2015). Climate justice without freedom: Assessing legal and political responses to climate change and forced migration: Assessing legal and political responses to climate change and forced migration. European Journal of Social Theory, 18(3), 288-307