Climate change is becoming a drive for migration

Chapter 3 of deals with the issue of climate change in relation to refugees. The author immediately underlines how climate change will have more devastating impacts than wars. One of the biggest problems linked to climate change will be climate refugees. As explained by the United Nations Refugee Convention from 1951 says that a refugee is any person who seeks refuge, ‘owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion’. The chapter by Tarja Ketola wants to stress the fact that climate change is not yet included in the list of reasons to gain a refugee status; it means climate refugee and climate refuge seeking are still theoretical concepts. What is worth noting is that climate change is happening and climate refugees are part of our reality. Bronen has adopted the term “climigration” when dealing with a forced permanent migration of communities due to climate change. If we consider the reasons why the United High Commissioner for Refugees is reluctant to include climate refugees, it is inevitable to understand that refugees have a special status which allows them to access to services and resources in the resettlement country. The chapter is finalized to identify a model to turn chaotic climate refuge seeking into planned climate migration by learning from history. The methodology adopted in the chapter is based on qualitative case studies derived from literature and compiled into a framework. The consequences will be economic, social and cultural. However, some countries are adopting particular legal tools to recognize climate refugees) think about Sweden and Finland, for example). Among the conclusions of the article, it is very interesting to notice the fact that climate change migration naturally erodes the position of indigenous peoples further both as involuntary recipients of “climigrants” or “clirefugees.” It seems climigration opens up to a new perspective on indigenous rights: the rights of the original, majority inhabitants of the ordinary villages, municipalities, towns, cities, and nations of the destinations of the climigrants. So far migrants have constituted a minority of the population of their host countries, and even the number of refugees, fleeing in millions from countries like Syria have remained small, maximum 0.1–0.5 percent of the population in most receiving countries – only in the neighbouring country, Lebanon, have refugee numbers totaled up to 25 percent of the population. When climate change induced migration or refuge seeking starts in earnest, it will turn the tables: the inhabitants of the countries of destination could become minority groups with the massive numbers of climigrants or clirefugees becoming the majority groups. Every nation wishes to protect its own citizens, it is well-known, and for this reason, there is the need to be extremely careful when dealing with such a hot topic that will change the global dynamics.

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