{"id":7418,"date":"2023-10-24T21:04:59","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T21:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/course.fossdle.org\/baccc\/?page_id=7418"},"modified":"2023-10-24T21:04:59","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T21:04:59","slug":"climate-change-refugees-and-migration-or-displacement-part-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/course.fossdle.org\/baccc\/modules\/module-6-adaptation-and-resilience\/climate-change-refugees-and-migration-or-displacement-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Change Refugees and Migration or Displacement – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The impacts of climate change displacement and migration<\/span><\/h2>\n

Whether displacement or migration is a forced or a chosen adaptation measure, unintended consequences can be the result. Either strategy can create new challenges, such as social and economic dislocation, conflict and a strain on resources in the destination areas. It is important for governments and international organisations to address these challenges through supportive policies and programmes, while also working to mitigate the causes of climate change to reduce the need for migration in the first place.\n<\/p>\n

As Joan Rosenhauer points out, for refugees, climate change is a threat multiplier. The effects of climate change will not only lead to enormous numbers of displaced people in the future but are also making life harder for refugees in the present. And this is whether people are refugees because of the impacts of climate change or climate change is impacting people who are already refugees. A colleague of Rosenhauer in Zimbabwe said, after Cyclone Idai in 2019:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u201c\n<\/td>\n Imagine having fled your home after violence was imminent for you that threatened your life. You\u2019re grabbing your kids. You\u2019re fleeing. You\u2019re trying to settle into a home and place with almost no resources. You\u2019re living in a strange place with a mud hut. And then [imagine] having it all flattened by a storm. You\u2019ve had to leave everything behind, and you\u2019ve lost everything already once, and now twice. It\u2019s those kinds of experiences where we see that climate change really multiplies the challenges that refugees face.<\/i>\n<\/td>\n \u201d\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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\u2014A colleague of Rosenhauer<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


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In early 2023, after Cyclone Freddy had ripped through the southeastern region of Africa \u2013 twice \u2013 Lazarus Chakwera, president of Malawi, stated, \u201cWe had been trying to build back from Cyclone Idai in 2019, and then the pandemic, now Freddy. We are in a perpetual cycle of trying to pull ourselves up and getting knocked back down.\u201d He said that nearly half of his country had been damaged by Cyclone Freddy, which had killed hundreds of people. \u201cThis demonstrates that climate change issues are real, and we are standing right in the path of it.\u201d President Chakwera added that the climate crisis had the potential to keep \u201ca nation like Malawi in perpetual poverty.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Malawi President Declares Half of Country Damaged by Cyclone<\/a><\/i>[1]<\/a><\/sup>\n<\/p>\n

This tragic disaster makes it easy to imagine how people become climate refugees: displaced persons having (or migrants choosing) to leave their damaged or destroyed homes and move somewhere else.\n<\/p>\n

According to Rosenhauer, \u201cthe intersection between climate change and its impact on people and forcible displacement is clearly recognized\u201d (in Remedios, 2020).\n<\/p>\n

Rosenhauer (cited in Remedios, 2020) is concerned about the numbers:\n<\/p>\n

The UN estimates that by 2050, up to 250 million people will be displaced by climate change impacts, such as rising sea levels and floods and famine and droughts. That\u2019s a huge number. We currently have 79.5 million people displaced. They\u2019re talking 250 million people by 2050 so it\u2019s clearly going to be a huge challenge.\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to very much impact internally displaced people. Not everybody will cross a border, and so we have to help countries prepare to help their people. And we have to help the people who are in that situation now, and then build toward helping others as this happens so that they can mitigate their impact (though, in many cases, their impact is minimal). But also, so that they can adapt as they need to.\n<\/p>\n

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, data show that disasters linked to climate change likely worsen poverty, hunger and access to natural resources, stoking instability and violence.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u201c\n<\/td>\n From Afghanistan to Central America, droughts, flooding, and other extreme weather events are hitting those least equipped to recover and adapt,\u201d said the UN agency, which is calling for countries to work together to combat climate change and mitigate its impact on hundreds of millions of people. Since 2010, weather emergencies have forced around 21.5 million people a year to move, on average. Roughly 90% of refugees come from countries that are the most vulnerable and least ready to adapt to the impacts of climate change.<\/i>, 2021\n<\/td>\n \u201d\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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\u2014United Nations \u2013 UN News<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


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Climate Change Link to Displacement of Most Vulnerable Is Clear<\/a><\/i>[2]<\/a><\/sup>\n<\/p>\n

Locate the following article by Florian Zandt and examine the diagram:\n<\/p>\n

Average Number of Internal Climate Migrants by 2050 per Region<\/a><\/i>[3]<\/a><\/sup>\n<\/p>\n

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What is another way that a government (at any level) could include concern for climate refugees in adaptation strategies? Write it in your learning journal, and then suggest it on social media with the hashtag #ClimateRefugees. See if anyone else is thinking the same thing as you.\n<\/p>\n

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References<\/span><\/h2>\n
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  1. \u2191<\/a><\/span> The Guardian, 20 March 2023. Malawi President Declares Half of Country Damaged by Cyclone<\/a><\/span>\n<\/li>\n
  2. \u2191<\/a><\/span> UNCHR, 2021. Climate Change Link to Displacement of Most Vulnerable Is Clear<\/a><\/span>\n<\/li>\n
  3. \u2191<\/a><\/span> UNCHR, 2021. Average Number of Internal Climate Migrants by 2050 per Region<\/a><\/span>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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