In today’s episode of “The Arc,” ECSP Director, Lauren Risi interviews Dr. Robert McLeman, a professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Toronto. Dr. McLeman unpacks how climate change interacts with social, economic, and political conditions in ways that render some communities to be more vulnerable to climate-related displacement than others. He also shares insights into how we can better promote safe, dignified, and just migration in the context of climate change and how justice and equity considerations are being incorporated into climate migration policy.

On how our understanding of climate-related migration has evolved over the last decade

We know that in 2022, over 32 million people worldwide were displaced from their homes by weather-related disasters, primarily droughts, floods, storms, and wildfires. And these are all events that occur on an ongoing basis, but they are being exacerbated by climate change. And so we have a fairly good feel for the number of people who are being forced to move, if only for a temporary period of time because of extreme weather events. We also have pretty good forecasts about just how warm it’s going to get in the coming decades and how much sea levels are going to rise over the course of the remainder of this century.  So, we have a good idea of the exposure, the nature of what kind of risks we’re exposing ourselves to. And we have a pretty good idea of who is most vulnerable to being displaced to being forced to make some really difficult choices in a changing climate. And probably not surprisingly, we know that they are often people who are low income, who may come from families that don’t have the same social networks or resources as others.

On issues of justice and equity being elevated in climate migration discussions and policy

Definitely, justice, and equity considerations are entering into people’s thinking, including scientists and policymakers, much more so than they did five or 10 years ago. And there’s a couple of things going on. One is that we see more social scientists engaging with climate science. Even as recently as five or 10 years ago, it was primarily natural scientists who tended to look at these issues in a sort of black and white lens…But with greater social science engagement from a variety of disciplines, we’re seeing people saying we have to think about adaptation and how we can make communities more resilient so that they are not forced into situations where they necessarily have to migrate or move.

On migration with dignity

So, it’s tough for me, as a person who has enjoyed a middle class lifestyle in a high-income country, to know exactly what that means. But from people I’ve interacted with, who, for example, have lived all their lives in small island states that are on the front lines of the impacts of climate change. When they talk about migration with dignity, what they essentially mean is, we don’t want to be refugees. And we don’t want to be treated like refugees, primarily because we know that refugees are not treated well. What we want are options, we want the ability to be able to migrate in pursuit of our economic aspirations or cultural social aspirations. And to do so legally, and to enjoy the advantages that any other migrant would receive.

On centering the most affected communities in policy discussion and analysis around climate migration

There’s been some great thought, and great policy research, and even great policy development with respect to climate and migration. So, I’m thinking about, for example, just a few years ago, the development of the Global Compact on Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees, which are designed to facilitate safe, regular, and orderly migration. Now, these are not laws, these are guiding principles for the international community, and it’s come out of the UN process. They’re non-binding arrangements. But if we actually look at these agreements, these compact documents, they actually provide really useful blueprints for governments on how they should respond to environmentally related migration. And they actually deal with those questions explicitly. They’re wonderfully thought out, and they think both in terms of how to help and protect people in their countries of residence, but also how to protect those who need to leave those countries.  Unfortunately, not many countries have actually embraced these. In theory, they all signed off on them as a “good idea,” but no one’s actually implementing them on any scale. And this is often the case with these types of agreements. That said, there are some regional agreements that have emerged in recent years, in, for example, the African Union in Central America, looking at migration within those geographic regions, and essentially allowing a certain amount of migration for environmental reasons. But at a global scale, and certainly involving high-income countries, there are very few policy arrangements that, you know, are actually being worked on at any notable level–hopefully we get there.