Climate change and migration

The focus of this research will be limited to countries which have suffered natural disasters, extreme weather events, hunger crises or civil wars resulting from climate change. The project will focus on those refugees who arrived in Canada because extreme weather events in their home countries influenced their decision to move.

Recent disasters such as flooding in Pakistan, the hunger crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa, the 2021 earthquake in Haiti and others have not elicited Canada government’s reaction as it did for Haitians in 2010. This research will explore whether Canada has consistent immigration policies for those claiming refugee status based on extreme weather events.

1. What is the definition of "climate refugees"?
2. Do Canada's immigration policies effectively address the needs of refugees fleeing climate-related events, and are these policies consistently applied across different environmental crises?

The project will pore over the scholarly literature as well as legal jurisprudence related to climate-related displacement to define the term “climate refugees". The research team will analyze the data available from UNHCR and other not-for-profit organizations working in the disaster or conflict zones of the world to understand the connections between climate change, extreme weather events and the escalation of conflicts. They will identify and interview refugees in Canada to understand the climatic factors that contributed to them moving to Canada Examining the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRBC)’s decisions on the refugee claims based on the natural disasters or climate change will also be a part of our analysis.

The project is in currently ongoing.

Expected completion date: 2029

Climate change; climate-induced displacement; climate refugees;  immigration policy; migration