Expanding Legal Protections for Climate Migrants

In the past decade, the effects of climate change have resulted in the displacement of over 250 million people worldwide. The International Organization for Migration defines an environmental or climate migrant as a person who moves within their country or abroad “predominantly for reasons of sudden or progressive change in the environment that adversely affects their lives or living conditions.” As the effects of climate change force more people around the world to move across borders, climate migrants will be in an especially vulnerable position—they are not currently protected under international law. International refugee law states that only those who are displaced due to social or political upheaval can be granted refugee status, while those who are uprooted due to climate-related disasters are given no such designation. Without being protected under a legal framework, climate migrants are at risk of exploitation and human rights violations, with poor migrants and women being the most vulnerable.

In a paper by Ama Francis in the Journal of International Affairs, the author argues that legal protections could be extended to cross-border climate migrants under free movement agreements (FMAs). FMAs are sub-regional economic agreements that liberalize migration between member states, with the best-known example perhaps being the European Union (EU). This could serve as a legal protections framework for climate migrants. Francis identifies three main advantages for using FMAs to fill this protection gap: they provide a legal solution to a legal problem, can build the individual and structural resiliency, and the allows for political feasibility to account for climate-induced migration.

If climate-induced migration can be recognized under FMAs, Francis explains that this would allow migrants to avoid the legal obstacles of being declared “climate refugees,” a process which requires proof of environmental degradation in the country of origin. Producing this level of proof is particularly difficult for migrants who are poorer or less educated; ultimately, this phenomenon creates a system that perpetuates an accessibility gap between who can be protected as a refugee and those who cannot. FMAs can step around the need for migrants to prove forced or voluntary movement and whether or not that movement was caused directly by environmental reasons.

Francis also makes the case that FMAs improve structural and individual resilience, which can eventually help populations better adapt to the impacts of climate change. FMAs are proven to have substantive intra-regional economic advantages. Consequently, they bring about a greater structural resiliency that can strengthen a state’s ability to respond to an environmental disaster, decreasing the necessity of out-migration in the first place. At the individual level, since FMAs present the opportunity for more flexible movement, climate migrants can also travel more easily between their home country and host country for knowledge-sharing and social network strengthening. According to Francis, these non-economic exchanges are particularly helpful for communities to learn more about climate change adaptation strategies.

Finally, the author emphasizes the political feasibility of recognizing climate-induced migration through FMAs rather than through global multilateral agreements. In addition to the EU, FMAs are being leveraged in the Caribbean and in Africa to respond to migration resulting from natural disasters. There is a higher possibility of negotiation and cooperation between states at the regional level than there would be at the global level, especially since cross-border climate migrants are more likely to move to a country with which they share a border. Francis also makes the case that having fewer member states in a single agreement means FMAs can more easily adapt to suit the needs of migrants, particularly through granting social benefits. The element of social inclusion is key, as FMAs that simply grant entry could risk trapping climate migrants as second-class citizens, deepening economic divides and creating greater societal inequity.

International law and policy currently leave the world underprepared to address what will be an exponential increase of human migration as a result of the effects of climate change. FMAs provide a path for regional cooperation so that cross-border climate migrants need not sacrifice personal safety or economic stability if a climate-related disaster forces them away from their homes. This can be the first step in closing the protection gap for climate migrants.

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Francis, Ama. 2019. “Climate-Induced Migration & Free Movement Agreements.” Journal of International Affairs 70: 123-134. https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-jevs-s685.