Environmental Migration

Environmental Migration

Persons leave their homes within their country of origin or across borders for different reasons – often the environment constitutes one of the factors – together with economic, political or social factors – leading to migration (e.g. droughts, desertification, floods, sea level rise). Increasingly, climate change is responsible for such environmental changes. In several cases of environment-related migration, a clear-cut distinction between voluntary and involuntary migration is difficult – particularly in cases of droughts where persons can fulfil their daily needs only under difficult circumstances and therefore decide to leave their homes. This raises questions regarding their legal status, in particular the question whether they are eligible for international protection.

In the past we conducted research on the legal status of persons displaced inter alia by environmental factors under international and EU law. The project ClimMig: Climate-induced migration and the need for new normative and institutional frameworks focused on the question to what extent legal and institutional frameworks at global, European and Austrian level regulate or take climate-related migration sufficiently into account. In this context not only forced migration but also the role of voluntary migration as adaption measure was investigated.

A recent project ClimAccount: Human Rights Accountability of the EU and Austria for Climate Policies in Third Countries and their possible Effects on Migration aims at shedding light on the complex relationship between climate policies, migration and human rights by focussing on the effects of EU’s and Austria’s climate policies for the enjoyment of human rights of persons in third countries and their possible repercussions for displacement, resettlement and/or relocation. In this context (extraterritorial) human rights obligations of the EU and Austria will be identified.