Op-Ed: Defining refugees in a changing climate

Contrary to what the current American government may be saying, the climate is, in fact, changing. Any scientist or academic of any repute would tell you as much.A changing climate brings higher incidences of extreme weather events. Just look at Houston, Texas, which has had three 'once-in-500-years' floods since 2015.Meanwhile, rising sea levels and other gradual changes that are side effects of global warming tend to generate headlines that foresee armageddon. Just last year, The Guardian ran a piece titled “Rising Seas: ‘Florida is about to be wiped off the map.’”

Indeed, the effects of climate change can be seen and felt the world over, and yet the international community is still lacking in its response to the plight of people affected by climate change. There is no international definition of, or policy for, the so-called 'climate refugees.' Per the United Nations High Committee for Refugees (UNHCR) 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person “who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.” The general meaning is thus that a person should not be forced to  return to a country in which their life and liberty are at risk. We propose that climate refugees should be accorded protections as other refugees are and that the definition of a refugee requires fundamental some changes.

Asylum seekers — the people who cross an international border to apply for refugee status — are those people who lack safety in their countries of origin. Thus, these people seek entrance into another country — nearly always as a last resort, to preserve their lives. Now, we must consider if 'climate refugees' fit into this framework. The concept of climate refugees remains fairly ambiguous, without any formal definition at present.This difficulty stems at least in part from the differentiated experiences of different peoples and regions in the face of climate change. For some, monumental natural disasters strike overnight. Others may deal with rising sea levels or desertification, processes that take years, if not decades to have visible effects.

The UNHCR's definition for refugees includes citizens of the Maldives and Kiribati, whose island territories are literally ebbing away daily. This also includes people in Bangladesh or the Philippines dealing with catastrophic storms and flooding. Yet, just because there are unique challenges posed by climate refugees, this clearly does not mean that they should receive no recognition.

Some might immediately throw out this definition, saying it is idealistic, and that it is not the international community’s responsibility to clean up the physical and metaphorical mess caused by a flood in another country. However, the international community already recognizes that these people require protection. Why else would the United States Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance have spent some $1.6 billion on disaster response activities worldwide in the 2017 fiscal year alone? Humanitarian efforts to protect vulnerable populations due to natural disasters, in addition to man-made disasters, are already widespread and rife with international spending.

While international funding is often lifesaving for thousands of people, it also serves as an admission that the populations receiving this aid are at risk. In other words, these people have credible fears for their lives and well-being. Per our definition, these people are indeed climate refugees and have credible asylum claims. Surely, people fleeing a region devastated by an isolated disaster incident should only be accorded asylum for a limited amount of time, as opposed to people whose countries disappear, necessitating permanent resettlement.

While the wide variation of climate refugees will need more localized and differentiated solutions, the first step is their actual recognition by the international community. Thus, the definition of “refugee” would more effectively protect the world’s vulnerable populations if it were broader, something like: “a person who is unable or unwilling to return to his/her country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of death or impingement on his/her natural human rights.” In other words, a refugee is someone whose well-being is not ensured by his/her government. Certainly, as populations feel the effects of climate change more and more in the coming decades, more climate refugees than ever will need protection, and it is time that the international community takes notice.

If you are interested in learning more about this pressing issue, join the Institute for Global Leadership and students from around the world at this year’s Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship Symposium: “Migration in a Turbulent World,” from March 7 to 9. The symposium will include three days of far-reaching discussions on pressing challenges regarding international migration, including the impacts of climate change on migration.

The full schedule and free tickets can be found here.