Abstract
Climate change has become an inescapable part of reality and has lately garnered noticeable attention. A plethora of studies dedicated to climate change aimed at figuring out the intricacies of the same has been conducted. The impact of climate change on human movement across as well as within borders is relatively under-discussed. Currently, there exists no standardized definition of a climate refugee, nor does the term find mention in the 1951 Refugee Convention. This chapter aims at exploring the challenges of coming to a possible theoretical framework to facilitate better policy-making. A brief historical account of migration has been presented followed by debates surrounding the term climate refugee. It also takes into consideration the implications the recognition (by state and non-state institutions) will have. The discourse on development and the North–South divide has been taken into account for arriving at a possible framework and offer a contextualized explanation of the phenomenon. For the same, the cases of the Netherlands and Bangladesh have been taken into account. Finally, the aim is to center climate-induced displacement on the debates around global migration to facilitate well-researched responses and possible policy formulation.
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Notes
- 1.
Fixing of boundaries can lead to a sense of territoriality. This sense of territoriality decides who is included and who is excluded from the nation-state.
- 2.
New displacements refers to the number of movements. One person may be compelled to relocate more than once, with each movement counted as a new displacement.
- 3.
Disappearance of entire states because of only climate change needs a separate conceptual framework. See McAdam (2010).
- 4.
- 5.
As quoted in Stephen Castles, International Social Science Journal, vol. 52, 2000, p. 269.
- 6.
As quoted in Massey (2003).
- 7.
As per Germanwatch’s 2021 Global Climate Risk Index (CRI).
- 8.
See The Hindu’s who are the Chakmas? Who are Chakmas?—The Hindu.
- 9.
As mentioned in Parveen and Faisal (2002) (tandfonline.com).
- 10.
As mentioned in Samad, State of Minorities in Bangladesh: From Secular to Islamic Hegemony, 1998.
- 11.
- 12.
Flood-induced displacement in high flood exposure countries. Average of values during 2008–2013 for each country.
- 13.
This does not mean that the Global North has not faced its share of environmental catastrophes. Floods in Germany have proved that climate change is finally catching up and will spare no one from getting displaced.
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Chatterjee, S. (2023). Climate Refugees: Arriving at a Possible Framework. In: Singh, P., Ao, B., Yadav, A. (eds) Global Climate Change and Environmental Refugees. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24833-7_10
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