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‘Protection’ and ‘Migration’ as an Adaptation Strategy? European Policy and the Case of African Environmental Migrants.

par Lietaer, Samuel
Promoteur prof Dr Serge Gutwirth, ;DR Richard Lewis,
Publication Non publié, 2014-09-15

Mémoire

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Résumé :

Since the publication of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (2013), evidence has emerged of greater and more rapid impacts of climate change. We now face the realistic possibility of climate warming up to four degrees, while more than two degrees is considered a dangerous level of climate change. This phenomenon is already contributing to migration and displacement, due to the world that is transforming dramatically: besides the number of more visible sudden-onset natural disasters that is predicted to drastically increase, there are already parts slowly - but certainly - becoming uninhabitable, and abandoned by its inhabitants forced to seek sanctuary.Besides the conceptual gaps, hitherto legal and policy gaps clearly persist concerning (more or less) forced movement due to the climate change impacts. The aim of this paper was to address - partly and mainly - the EU’s legal and policy research gap. This was done by exploring first whether the current overall EU framework for immigration and asylum offers adequate responses to climate change-related movement due to slow-onset climate events. Second, as this was not the case, it examined to what extent the EU considers environmental migration (EM) as an adaptation strategy to remedy this problem.In accordance with our hypothesis one can moderately settle that the EU does not have a clear position on EM, let alone specific and explicit (legal) policy views on EM from and in Africa. Our assumption that this would mainly be caused by its fear for this phenomenon resulting in a rather security-driven approach, should nevertheless be nuanced.