Climate Change and International Migration: Environmental Refugees

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Climate Change and International Migration: Environmental Refugees
Human migrations motivated by situations of socio-environmental stress are not new in human history. Human dependence on the environment has existed since the dawn of humanity, as well as negative interference in nature through the alteration of ecological balances (GOUDIE, 2006). This relationship, which seemed to be dominated only by the supposed human cognitive and technological superiority, has suffered setbacks that shows how vulnerable man himself is in the face of the fragilities of the environment around him.
Unsustainable consumption practices, the drastic alteration of the environment to make way for cities and large buildings, the combination of chemical compounds harmful to fauna and flora, as well as other factors of direct interference in the environment, show that the impact of the presence not only can it be negative for the environment, but in the mid- and long-term, for the survival of the human species.
The extreme climatic change and variability perceived with greater intensity in the last three decades (IPCC, 2001) is a clear demonstration of this fragile relationship, even when the environmental event itself does not seem to have a direct correlation with anthropic interference in the environment. In view of this issue, some theories are commonly used to explain the socio-environmental relationship in a context of climate change, of which (i) risk, (ii) danger and (iii) vulnerability stand out.
Vulnerability and risk, much more than danger, are key categories to identify how environmental changes, whether local or global, have interfered in man's relationship with the environment in which he lives. The vulnerability will measure the degree of a system’s susceptibility to disturbances that affect its balance, as well as its capacity to respond to the situation.
To this end, it must be considered that the socio-environmental relationship is the pillar and the starting point of the analysis of vulnerabilities and risk: it is according to the degree of society's interference in nature that it will be possible to understand how the great environmental changes influence and are influenced by human intervention in the environment. Nevertheless, the complexity of human systems and environmental systems must be considered, which in itself makes it impossible to arrive at a common denominator or a unique solution to the problem.
Keywords: Environmental Refugees; International Migration; Climate changes; UN Convention on the Status of Refugees; Global Migration and Environmental Governance.
Introduction
The existence of environmental refugees is not new in human history, since migratory movements motivated by adverse environmental conditions are frequent in the historical study of civilizations (Berchin et al. 147-150). What is new is the intensification of the worldwide flow of environmental refugees, especially towards the end of the 20th century and in this first decade of the 21st century, and the consequences, for people and for nature, of this dizzying increase in forced migrants induced by situations of socio-environmental stress.
Such an intensification of the worldwide flow of environ...