ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, CLIMATE CHANGE, MIGRATION AND YOUTH

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, CLIMATE

CHANGE, MIGRATION AND YOUTH

  Within the debates

on the consequences of climatic and ecological change,

international attention has become increasingly focussed on

the links

between environmental change and human migration. Several

international

organisations such as UNHCR, UNFCCC, IOM and UNICEF are

addressing this issue.

Furthermore, a series of research initiatives focusing on

the link between

environmental change and migration has been set up in recent

years. These include

projects such as Environmental Change and Forced Migration

Scenarios (EACH FOR),

1.      the

Foresight: Migration and Global Environmental Change project

2.      and

“Where the rain falls”.

3.   First of all, the studies mentioned come to

the conclusion that in the majority of cases,

it is not only environmental change in the form of

rapid-onset events (storms, flood

events, etc.) or gradual processes of ecological change

(soil erosion, sea-level rise, etc.)

that cause people to migrate. It is rather a complex set of

interrelated environmental,

socio-economic, cultural, political and demographic factors

that influences or drives

migration decisions.