Author(s): Pereira, Alexandra
Date: 2023
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/45057
Origin: Veritati - Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Subject(s): Migratory justice; Global inequalities; Climate refugees; Climate change
In this study, I will examine IOM’s recurrent stance on how more measures areneeded to protect climate migrants and climate refugees around the world andits relationships with both new research lines on climate migrants beingcreatedand developed by migration research institutes around the globe (from NewZealand to Germany and Canada) and the debate around the need for therecognition of a new juridico-political category (or a specific juridicalprotection status): the so-called “climate refugees”. The concept of climaterefugees corresponds to a new juridico-political category, or to a specificprotection status, which is still not internationally recognized norharmonized.This discussion has been deepened over the last few years, in the face of: a largenumber of natural disasters and other ecological and environmentalcatastrophes, as well as more visible, mediatized and increased migratorymovements associated with them (Berchin et al., 2017; Carević and Novokmet,2021; Hiraide, 2022). This is a qualitative and interpretative research, based onextensive literature review on this topic, content, legal, document and criticalanalysis. I argue that integral human development (IHD, 1967-2018) and itscorrelative concept of integral ecology (Francis, 2015; Hodges et al., 2018) canprovide a useful framework to rethink and expand, in a more comprehensive andhumanist manner, the concept of “climate refugees”. Additionally, severalauthors point out that a leading role could (and should) be taken by the EuropeanUnion in determining the international recognition of the new juridico-politicalcategory of “climate refugees”. Pondering the contributions by Wilcox (2021),Brock (2019), Rockström et al. (2009), Steffen et al. (2015), De Tavernier &Ndubueze (2020) and the glossary MECLEP (2014), I conclude by proposingmy own personal definition for the new juridico-political category of “climaterefugee”.
