Climate Justice is Migrant Justice.
Climate change is a human rights issue affecting more people every day. EBSC recognizes this intersection and advocates for policy change that addresses climate migration.
Bringing Light to Climate Migration: An Educational Exhibit
What is Climate Migration?
Climate Migration: The act of leaving one’s home due to climate stressors such as drought, flooding and sea level rise.
Climate Migrant ≠ Refugee
Climate migrants do not fall under the 1951 Refugee Convention’s legal definition of a “refugee,” which includes any person leaving their home country for fear of persecution due to “race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”
This definition was established long before talk of climate change and conservation had entered the public sphere and is therefore an inadequate description of the possible circumstances of modern-day refugees.
Climate change is a human rights issue.
A New Framework for US Climate Migration
- Reducing the drivers of climate migration by cutting emissions and investing in resilience.
- Demonstrating through U.S. immigration policy action that accommodating climate migrants is critically important and possible.
- Leading the strengthening of international frameworks on climate migration.
What can you do?
Call your representatives and demand expansion for existing refugee and asylum protections including:
- Abolish ICE and end deportations and detentions, especially of unaccompanied minors.
- Expand TPS and DACA and create a path to permanent residency for TPS/DACA holders.
Sources
- 5 facts on climate migrants
- Root and Branch: Climate Migration, Racial Crises, and the History and Future of Climate Justice
- Infographics: climate change, migration and displacement
- Report: Each Country’s Share of CO2 Emissions
- Forced from Home: Climate-fueled Displacement
- Defining Refugees in the Era of Climate Displacement