Environmental Refugees Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Since this term first appeared in the mid-1970s, discussions have focused around three broad concerns that are raised by the phenomenon. These are: what are environmental refugees, what are the causes of their plight, and how might these causes be removed, or reduced in impact?

First, in terms of definitions, it is important to recognize that the term environmental refugee (or ecological refugee) is not a legal designation. The 1951 International Convention on the Status of Refugees defines refugees in strictly political terms. According to that Convention, a refugee is an individual who has fled his or her country because they fear persecution on the grounds of their race, religion, nationality, political beliefs, or membership in a social group. Such a definition is one that highlights the erosion of civil and political rights of the individual; it pays no heed to their economic or environmental rights, nor to the circumstances that might lead to a deterioration of those rights.

Since the integrity of a region’s environment or the viability of the local economy are as important in any individual’s ability to maintain their quality of life, however, many critics have come to argue that the definition of refugees should be expanded to include environmental refugees-defined as individuals who are obliged to flee their homelands because deterioration in their local environment has made it dangerous, unhealthy, or impossible for them to continue to support themselves and their family in that region.

Critics of the term have pointed to many problems with such a definition. Are only natural calamities to be considered (such as volcanic eruptions) or are human-induced environmental disasters to be included (such as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in Ukraine)? Is the time scale of the event relevant to claims of refugee status-for example, is the slow salinization of soils any less relevant than the effects of a massive tsunami? Is permanent displacement required or are temporary movements of concern as well? Some scholars even debate whether the term environmental migrant might not be a more useful term to use as the term environmental refugee is so imprecise, and devoid of rights under international treaty.

Political opposition and the fear of being inundated with an ever-expanding number of migrants makes it highly unlikely that the 1951 Convention can ever be amended to include the category of “environmental refugees.” However, this lack of legal meaning need not detract from the general usefulness of the concept as it places their plight firmly on the agendas of policymakers and researchers.

At an international level, the interconnectedness of the global environment means that the plight of environmental refugees is ultimately part of everyone’s concern, and-as a corollary-whatever action occurs to protect the global environment will also help ease their situation. Therefore, treaties to mitigate the consequences of global warming not only alleviate the toll on the earth’s entire ecosystem, but also enable local environments to support individual populations. Through such agreements, the predicted flooding of the Maldives and several small Polynesian island states by the middle of this century may yet be abated, and one of the most dramatic examples of future environmental refugee flows could be prevented.

The recent advances in human security and disaster research have been very useful to this discussion as they have clearly shown why environmental deterioration produces environmental refuges in certain circumstances but not in others. This growing body of work has shown how poverty is often the root cause of such movements. Richer communities are able to withstand repeated floods or crop losses; economically deprived or more “vulnerable” communities simply cannot and must seek alternatives elsewhere. Therefore, according to this approach, the root causes of many environmental refugee movements lie not only in the deterioration of the environment, but in the social and economic structures of the region’s society and, in particular, in those institutions that create or sustain local poverty.

It follows from this research that any broad strategy to combat the plight of environmental refugees needs to focus on local economic development, and on the creation of community resilience, as much as it does on the more immediate consequences of environmental change.

Bibliography:

C. Bates, “Environmental Refugees? Classifying Human Migrations Caused by Environmental Change,” Population and Environment (v.23, 2002);
El-Hinnawi, Environmental Refugees (United Nations Environment Program, 1985);
Thomas Homer-Dixon and Jessica Blitt, Ecoviolence: Links Among Environment, Population and Security (Rowman and Littlefield, 1998);
Norman Myers, “Environmental Refugees: A Growing Phenomenon of the 21st Century,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences (v.357, 2002);
Alan Nash, “Environmental Refugees: Consequences and Policies From a Western Perspective,” Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society (v.3, 1999).