Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Climate migration myths

Nature Climate Change volume 9, pages 901–903 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Misleading claims about mass migration induced by climate change continue to surface in both academia and policy. This requires a new research agenda on ‘climate mobilities’ that moves beyond simplistic assumptions and more accurately advances knowledge of the nexus between human mobility and climate change.

International migration and climate policy assumes that anthropogenic climate change already is, and will increasingly be, a major driver of mass migration from the Global South to the Global North. The UNFCCC explicitly specifies the need to avert, minimize and address climate displacement1, while the UN Security Council warns of mass climate migration and the subsequent risk of aggravating conflicts2. Although the potential for climate change to disrupt livelihoods and threaten lives is real, these policies reinforce a false narrative that predicts large numbers of ‘climate refugees’. This self-referencing narrative in scientific literature and policy reports has the consequence of entrenching climate migration as a looming security crisis without an empirical scientific basis3.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Nash, S. L. Glob. Policy 9, 53–63 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Boas, I. Climate Migration and Security: Securitisation as a Strategy in Climate Change Politics (Routledge, 2015).

  3. Betts, A. & Pilath, A. J. Int. Relat. Dev. 20, 782–804 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Piguet, E., Kaenzig, R. & Guélat, J. Popul. Environ. 39, 357–383 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2018–2020 Part 12—Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials (European Commission, 2018); https://go.nature.com/31Upkvp

  6. DRS-22-2015—Ethical/Societal Dimension Topic 3: Impact of Climate Change in Third Countries on Europe’s Security (CORDIS, European Commission, 2015); https://cordis.europa.eu/programme/rcn/665095/en

  7. Trombetta, M. J. Crit. Stud. Secur. 2, 131–147 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. National Security Implications of Climate-Related Risks and a Changing Climate RefID 8–6475571 (United States Department of Defense, 2015); https://go.nature.com/2obMFuL

  9. Suliman, S. Globalizations 13, 638–652 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Black, R. et al. Glob. Environ. Change 21, S3–S11 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Foresight: Migration and Global Environmental Change (UK Government Office for Science, 2011); https://go.nature.com/31A0Xmr

  12. Gemenne, F. Glob. Environ. Change 21, S41–S49 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Wiegel, H., Boas, I. & Warner, J. WIRes Clim. Change https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.610 (2019).

  14. Sakdapolrak, P. et al. Erde 147, 81–94 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Urry, J. Mobilities (Polity, 2007).

  16. Missirian, A. & Schlenker, W. Science 358, 1610–1614 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Arnall, A., Hilson, C. & McKinnon, C. Clim. Policy 19, 665–671 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Foner, N. & Simon, P. (eds) Fear, Anxiety, and National Identity: Immigration and Belonging in North America and Western Europe (Russell Sage Foundation, 2015).

  19. Baldwin-Edwards, M., Blitz, B. K. & Crawley, H. J. Ethn. Migr. Stud. 45, 2139–2155 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research under grant no. VENI 451‐16‐030 and the Wageningen University Department of Social Sciences Excellence Fund.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands

    Ingrid Boas, Simon Bush, Hanne Wiegel & Machiel Lamers

  2. Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia

    Carol Farbotko

  3. Department of Geography, King’s College London, London, UK

    Helen Adams

  4. Department of Geography and Regional Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Harald Sterly & Patrick Sakdapolrak

  5. United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security, Bonn, Germany

    Kees van der Geest

  6. Department of Anthropology, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Hasan Ashraf

  7. Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Andrew Baldwin

  8. Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Giovanni Bettini

  9. Institute of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Neuchatel, Neuchatel, Switzerland

    Suzy Blondin & Etienne Piguet

  10. African Studies Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands

    Mirjam de Bruijn

  11. Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    David Durand-Delacre & Mike Hulme

  12. German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, Germany

    Christiane Fröhlich

  13. School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Giovanna Gioli

  14. Sociology of Development and Change Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands

    Lucia Guaita, Basundhara Tripathy Furlong & Jeroen Warner

  15. Hugo Observatory, Department of Geography, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Elodie Hut & Caroline Zickgraf

  16. Department of Planning, University for Development Studies, Wa, Ghana

    Francis X. Jarawura

  17. Centre for Sustainable Development Studies, Institute for Environmental Management and Land Use Planning, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Samuel Lietaer

  18. University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Institute of Forest, Environment and Natural Resource Policy, Wien, Austria

    Sarah L. Nash

  19. Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Delf Rothe

  20. Human Geography, Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands

    Lothar Smith

  21. KTH, Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, Stockholm, Sweden

    Ethemcan Turhan

  22. College of Social Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Richard Black

Authors
  1. Ingrid Boas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Carol Farbotko
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Helen Adams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Harald Sterly
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Simon Bush
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Kees van der Geest
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Hanne Wiegel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Hasan Ashraf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Andrew Baldwin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Giovanni Bettini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Suzy Blondin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Mirjam de Bruijn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. David Durand-Delacre
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Christiane Fröhlich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Giovanna Gioli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. Lucia Guaita
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  17. Elodie Hut
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  18. Francis X. Jarawura
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  19. Machiel Lamers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  20. Samuel Lietaer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  21. Sarah L. Nash
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  22. Etienne Piguet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  23. Delf Rothe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  24. Patrick Sakdapolrak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  25. Lothar Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  26. Basundhara Tripathy Furlong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  27. Ethemcan Turhan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  28. Jeroen Warner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  29. Caroline Zickgraf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  30. Richard Black
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  31. Mike Hulme
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ingrid Boas.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Boas, I., Farbotko, C., Adams, H. et al. Climate migration myths. Nat. Clim. Chang. 9, 901–903 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0633-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0633-3

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing