Commentary: Environmental Mobility: The Responsibility of the International Community
| Published date | 01 December 2020 |
| Author | T. Alexander Aleinikoff |
| Date | 01 December 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12794 |
Commentary: Environmental Mobility: The
Responsibility of the International Community
T. Alexander Aleinikoff*
Tens of millions of people will move or be dislocated by environmental events over the next sev-
eral decades. Some will be forced from their homes because of disasters; others will choose to
leave as they foresee an intolerable future. Departures may be short term—once the waters recede,
the rains come, or earthquake-shaken towns rebuild, people will return to their home communities.
For many, however, their movement from home may be permanent.
Mobility in the context of environmental causes—called here, environmental mobility—is due to
a variety of causes, both geophysical (earthquakes, extreme heat, fires) and weather-related
(drought, flood, storms, sea-level rise, extreme heat). It has been a part of human existence from
the beginning (think Noah and the flood); and there were calamitous earthquakes and hurricanes
before CO2 levels began to rise. But the scientific evidence is clear that the pace of environmental
displacement is increasing in our current era and that the climate crisis is plainly a significant con-
tributing factor. The World Bank, looking at migration within three regions of the world, estimates
that the effects of climate change could force more than 140 million persons to move within their
home states over the next several decades. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre has
reported that in 2019, 25 million people were displaced within their countries by the impacts of
disasters, nearly three times the number of persons displaced that year because of conflict and vio-
lence. Over 95% of disaster displacements were weather-related.
States and regional and international organizations have developed structures and operations for
responding to the human needs that arise from catastrophic environmental events. The Interagency
Standing Committee (IASC) coordinates efforts of international organizations and NGOs to provide
assistance and protection in situations of complex emergencies, including floods, cyclones and
droughts. Significant aid is also provided bilaterally.
Despite the many international and regional meetings and working groups and billions of dollars
spent on emergency relief efforts, there is no overall system for global governance of environmen-
tal mobility (McAdam, 2011).
1.
The international refugee regime—the most fully articulated system
for dealing with displacement—is not applicable to most forms of environmental mobility for two
reasons. First, persons forced to move due to environmental causes are unlikely to come within the
definition of refugee (which requires persecution based on a limited set of grounds). Second, most
environmental mobility occurs within states—thus, persons who move do not qualify as refugees
(who, as defined in international law, must be outside their countries of origin or places of habitual
residence). The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement pertain, inter alia, to persons forced to
flee their homes because of disasters. The Principles, however, are not binding on States (except to
the extent they restate existing human rights norms), and they provide no international mandate for
the protection and assistance of IDPs.
* University Professor and Director, Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility, The New School,
T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Director, Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility, The New School. I would like to
thank Jane McAdam and Susan Martin for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this Commentary.
doi: 10.1111/imig.12794
©2020 The Author
International Migration ©2020 IOM
International Migration Vol. 58 (6) 2020
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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