environmental migrant

Definition(s)

A person who, for compelling reasons of sudden or progressive changes in the environment that adversely affect their life or living conditions, is obliged to leave their habitual home, or chooses to do so, either temporarily or permanently, and who moves either within their country or across an international border.

Source(s)

Derived by EMN from IOM: Environmental Migrants and Global Governance: Facts, Policies and Practices, 2017.

Translations

• BG: N/A
• CS: environmentální migrant
• DE: Umweltmigrant
• EL: περιβαλλοντικός μετανάστης
• EN: environmental migrant
• ES: migrante por motivos medioambientales
• ET: keskkonnapõgenik
• FI: ilmastosiirtolainen/ilmastomuuttaja (no established translation)
• FR: migrant environnemental
• GA: N/A
• HR: migrant zbog klimatskih promjena
• HU: környezeti migráns
• IT: migrante ambientale
• LT: aplinkos pokyčio migrantas
• LV: vides migrants
• MT: Migrant/a ambjentali
• NL: N/A
• PL: migrant klimatyczny
• PT: migrante ambiental
• RO: migrant de mediu
• SK: environmentálny migrant
• SL: okoljski migrant
• SV: miljömigrant
• NO: miljømigrant
• KA: ეკოლოგიური მიგრანტი
• UK: екологічний мігрант
• HY: էկոլոգիական միգրանտ

Broader Term

• migrant

Related Term(s)

• environmentally displaced person

Note(s)

1. There is currently no international agreement on the terminology used to describe persons or groups of persons that move for environment-related reasons.
2. Environmental migration is often caused by multiple factors, making the cause-consequence relationships complex and multifactorial. The different degrees of force and influencing factors make it challenging to categorise these movements as either migration or displacement, particularly in the case of people fleeing disasters and environmental degradation. The selected IOM definition is deliberately broad and flexible in order to account for the diverse range of population movements due to all types of environmental drivers. It includes different forms of environmental movements: forced displacement and voluntary (anticipatory) migration, temporary and permanent, internal and international, individual and collective, of proximity and of long distance. The nature, duration and scale of environmental migration also depends on whether it takes place in the context of slow-onset events and processes (sea level rise, increasing temperatures, land degradation, etc.) or sudden-onset events and processes (floods, cyclones, storms, etc.) or human-made environmental degradation (such as deforestation, pollution) and disasters (such as nuclear or industrial accidents) that are exacerbated by the adverse effects of climate change and environmental degradation.
3. A distinction is made between environmental migrants and environmentally displaced persons. The latter refers to individuals forced to migrate due to sudden-onset events, gradual or slow-onset climate change, or human-induced environmental degradation and disasters. This forced migration occurs when the scale of the impact of the environmental disaster exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope with it using its own resources. This definition of disaster from the Nansen Initiative serves as the basis for distinguishing between environmental displacement and migration. Crucial to the distinction is the strict categorisation of environmentally displaced persons in the context of forced migration, which is consistent with the definition of displacement. For more information see: IOM: Environmental Migrants and Global Governance: Facts, Policies and Practices, 2017.
4. While some sources refer to environmentally displaced persons as environmental refugees, this is considered to be a misuse of the term 'refugee' as they do not meet the definition of refugees in the strict sense of Art. 1A of the Geneva Refugee Convention and Protocol. For more information see: UNHCR: Legal considerations regarding claims for international protection made in the context of the adverse effects of climate change and disasters, 2020.
5. For more information see: Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly: Environmentally induced migration and displacement: a 21st-century challenge,- Resolution 1655 (2009) and EMN inform: Displacement and migration related to disasters, climate change and environmental degradation, 2023.