and hard data are so readily dismissed is that they MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE | 8 MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE | 9 PUBLIC OPINION OF CLIMATE MIGRANTS PUBLIC OPINION OF CLIMATE MIGRANTS often tell a story of averages across the whole popu- The unpredictability and potential scale and speed lation, whereas impacts are experienced individually of movement related to climate change may in some and accr. [...] For example, the to Loss and Damage to support the communities average person in Nairobi, Kenya, arguably hardest hit by climate change, reached in 2022 at bears little responsibility for the climate- the 27th Conference of Parties to the United Nations change-related droughts that drive people Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 27) across East Africa to move to the city. [...] While it is important to speak predisposed to welcome climate about migration as a potential catalyst of the green migrants, this support must be transition, it is even more important to address the nurtured if it is to be sustained, and real policy and practical limitations that might stand in the way of this. [...] And even where communities Climate migration has become a buzzword are predisposed to welcome climate migrants, this in migration policy, and while this opens up MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE | 14 MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE | 15 PUBLIC OPINION OF CLIMATE MIGRANTS PUBLIC OPINION OF CLIMATE MIGRANTS space for policy reform, not all migration remittances to disaster-affected home communications and poli. [...] The climate justice numbers of migrants and displaced people movement makes the valid argument that the (or transforming economies and societies countries most vulnerable to climate impacts to cut emissions and adapt to climate are not those that contributed the most to change) will entail costs, and it is important climate change.
Authors
- Pages
- 23
- Published in
- United States of America
Table of Contents
- Executive Summary 1
- A review of polling and experimental data from around the world suggests that how climate mobility triggers solidarity versus opposition is neither straightforward nor unidirectional. 1
- 1 Introduction 3
- Climate migration poses distinct challenges for host communities that require different tools to address. 4
- 2 What Is Known about Public Opinion of Climate Migrants 4
- Existing public opinion research on migration is biased toward the Global North where surveys have long found that people are generally more sympathetic toward forced over voluntary migrants. 5
- Many survey experiments do not distinguish between internal and international climate migrants whereas public opinion on the two groups may be very different. 6
- 3 What Factors Trigger Public Anxiety or Support 7
- A. Predictability and Control 7
- B. Fairness and Deservingness 8
- C. Expected Temporariness versus Permanence 9
- D. Feelings of Insecurity 9
- This underscores that people are sensitive both to uncertsainty and to concerns about their communitys capacity to respond. 10
- 4 Climate Migration Narratives 11
- A. Narratives of Urgency 11
- These rather apocalyptic narratives aim to highlight the gravity of climate change in order to galvanize climate action. ... But do these narratives achieve their goals 11
- B. Narratives of Victimhood 12
- C. Positive Narratives 14
- 5 Conclusions and Recommendations 15
- There is a real need to enhance public understanding of this issue not least to ensure that public anxieties about climate migration do not form harden and 17
- Endnotes 18
- About the Authors 21
- Acknowledgments 22
- The Migration Policy Institute is an independent 23