Migration and Climate Change: an Overview by Étienne Piguet, Antoine Pécoud and Paul de Guchteneire

Climate change has become a major concern for the international community. Among its consequences, its impact on migration is the object of increasing attention from both policy-makers and researchers. Yet, knowledge in this field remains limited and fragmented. Published by the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), in cooperation with UNESCO, this working paper provides an overview of the climate change-migration nexus: on the basis of available empirical findings, it investigates the key issues at stake, including the social and political context in which the topic emerged; states’ policy responses and the views of different institutional actors; critical perspectives on the actual relationship between the environment and migration; the concepts and notions most adequate to address this relationship; gender and human rights implications; as well as international law and policy orientations. Two major interconnected arguments arise. The first concerns the weight of environmental and climatic factors in migration and their relationship to other push or pull factors, whether of social, political or economic nature. The second is about the political framework in which such migration flows should take place and how to treat the people who move in connection with environmental factors. Download the Working Paper Download WP1079 Piguet-Pecoud-de Guchteneire_01[1].  The French version is available for download [French, PDF] on University of Neuchâtel’s Working Papers website.

KJ