Forced migration due to environmental reasons. Forced migration induced by elements related to climate change and environmental degradation has always existed in the history of mankind. However, in recent years these displacements have gained prominence in the media as well as in social and political debates.
Climate change, plunder of resources, environmental pollution, armed conflicts are configured as determining processes in human displacement. And they are closely related to each other, sometimes making it difficult to separate one cause from another in a migratory process.
In the report “Forced migration for environmental reasons. A socio-political approach” explores the relationship between characteristics of the current social, political and economic system, ecosystem change and migration.
report analysis
The first part of the study addresses the complexity and multiple forms that the concepts of migration, asylum and forced displacement take, as well as the difficulty in defining the causes that generate these migratory processes, which are sometimes invisible aspects. Also reflected in: Involuntary immobility.
In the second part, the main systemic causes of forced displacement are analyzed, ranging from the description of the features of the current capitalist-exclusionist system to climate change and natural disasters, looting of natural resources, armed conflicts. or environmental pollution.
Similarly, gender and social class are elements that curtail human mobility, determining difficulties and inequalities when migrating, which is why the report dedicates a chapter to this topic. A chapter that ends with an interview with two people – one Colombian and the other Senegalese – who have experienced forced migration for the reasons cited in the study.
Francesca Ricciardi, spokeswoman for Ecologistas en Accion and co-author of the report, has declared: “Without wishing to reduce the complexity of the migratory phenomenon to a closed definition, which does not allow migration to be understood as a network of multiple causes We approach “forced migration for socio-environmental reasons such as the expulsion of people from their regions due to social, political, economic and cultural factors related to environmental degradation”. Forced migration for environmental reasons.
