Climate change, migration and displacement

The connections between climate change and migration have been the subject of many and often speculative assumptions. But what does research say on the issue, and what does it mean for Danish development policy?

This was the topic of a recent seminar organized by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and DIIS, with participation of the International Organisation for Migration, the World Bank, the Hugo Observatory of Environmental Migration, CARE Denmark, and Danish researchers and practitioners.

Recommendations from the seminar included:

• The need for more attention to domestic climate displacement and -migration, and not just cross-border movement
• A focus on climate change adaptation in the places of origin, thereby making migration a free choice rather than a necessity
• Support to the positive aspects of migration, eg labour migration as an adaptation strategy

DIIS participants at the seminar included Mikkel Funder and Esbern Friis-Hansen, who presented research on climate displacement, and Ninna Nyberg Sørensen who discussed the need for an unbiased approach and terminology in order to avoid politicizing the topic unduly.

A summary of these and other recommendations is attached on the right.