Climate Change & Migration

Forthcoming books:

Climate Change and Migration: Security and Borders in a Warming World (OUP, Sept. 2011) [info]
- "Focusing on climate-induced migration from Africa to Europe, [Gregory] White shows how global warming's impact on international relations has been significant, enhancing the security regimes in not only the advanced economies of the North Atlantic, but in the states that serve as transit points between the most advanced and most desperate nations. Furthermore, he demonstrates that climate change has altered the way the nations involved view their own sovereignty, as tightening or defining borders in both Europe and North Africa leads to an increase of the state's reaches over society."

The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society (OUP, Sept. 2011) [info]

- Included is the chapter "Climate Refugees and Security: Conceptualizations, Categories, and Contestations," in which the authors "question the validity of the climate refugee category, arguing that far from providing succor and solace to the most vulnerable communities within the global South, the climate refugee is a subject of securitization. The most dominant perspective remains a realist (state-centric), militarist narrative, and the climate refugee is constructed, at best, as a victim of a global polity with no human agency--a political entity outside sovereignty--or, even worse, as an environmental criminal or terrorist" (p. 279).

New publications:

Fraternity, Responsibility and Sustainability: The International Legal Protection of Climate (or Environmental) Migrants at the Crossroads (SSRN, April 2011) [text]

"Protecting People Displaced by Disasters in the Context of Climate Change: Challenges from a Mixed Conflict/Disaster Context," Tulane Environmental Law Journal, vol. 24, no. 2 (Summer 2011) [abstract]

Q&A: Climate-Driven Migrants Raise Thorny Legal Issues (Inter Press Service, Aug. 2011) [text]
- Interview with Jane McAdam.

Unpacking the Question of Rights for Environmental Refugees: What If Securitization is Not the Only Thing to Blame?, Paper prepared for the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, 1-4 September 2011 (posted Aug. 2011) [text via SSRN]

Upcoming event:

Climate Change and Migration in the Asia-Pacific: Legal and Policy Responses, Sydney, 10-11 November 2011 [info]
- "The aim of this conference is to present research by leading international academics and officials from affected countries on climate change and migration/displacement to an Australian audience, with a particular focus on the impacts of climate change in the Pacific region. It will cover themes such as: Conceptualizing climate change-related movement; The nature of movement – what does the evidence tell us?; Legal protection frameworks; 'Migration with dignity'; Relocation and land tenure; Statehood; and Institutional responses."

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities.