One good reason to speak of 'climate refugees'

In: Forced migration review, Heft 49

Abstract

The difficulty of isolating environmental factors from other drivers of migration still exists but no-one now seems to deny their importance as a driving force of displacement. The concept of environmental migration is now a common feature in migration studies, and the number of research projects, workshops and conferences on this topic has vastly expanded in recent years. As the concept of environmental migration gained currency, migration was less perceived as a decision of last resort that people take when they have exhausted all possible options for adaptation in their place of origin. That was a paradigm shift: that migration in the context of climate change was no longer a disaster to avoid at all costs but a strategy that ought to be encouraged and facilitated. In the press and in public debates, those uprooted by climate change were once often called climate refugees. Adapted from the source document.