Should There Be Reparations for Climate Based Migrants?

Each quarter, a group of students, faculty, and staff at WWU convene an environmental justice reading group to read and discuss recent texts. This quarter (Spring 2020) the group is reading environmental justice-related news articles and recent podcasts. This post reflects one of the recent discussions.

Should There Be Reparations for Climate Based Migrants?

By: Rebecca Mercado and Mikaela Keator

 

The UN describes a refugee as someone forced to leave their country of origin due to war or persecution, and that they can prove it. Gaining refugee status grants a migrant certain protections and rights within their country of destination. This is wonderful for those that can attain this under the specific requirements, but this leaves out all the people that have fled their country because of extreme poverty, famine, joblessness, natural disasters, and crop failure due to climate change and climate related problems. This is especially challenging for farmers in Niger or Honduras that rely on the Earth to provide for their families.

 

The Geneva Convention held in 1951 in Geneva Switzerland was where/when the definition of a refugee started, which was created to protect European refugees after World War II. The words from the Geneva Convention determine who is and is not considered a refugee and the rights they are granted under international law. The definition under the Geneva Conference is a refugee is someone who was forced to flee their country as a result of violence, war, or persecution. For other reasons not relating to violence, war, or persecution, they are considered to have left voluntarily. 

 

There are several questions to consider when talking about climate migration. One of the big ones is, how do the countries who contribute the most to climate change make up for the irreversible damage they have caused to those affected most, like climate refugees? Requiring reparations from top contributing countries to give to climate refugees is a complex issue. For the most part, people would probably agree that reparations are very important and necessary for providing justice. There are many different forms of reparations, including: taking in climate refugees, providing land, allowing refugees to migrate freely, giving payment and creating policies to reduce the country’s impact; however, even with these possible reparations it is not a simple fix. 

 

Regardless of who is held responsible, one aspect of climate refugees that can not be ignored is their recognition by the United Nations. Without legal recognition, climate refugees are being denied the ability to migrate to other countries. The planet has changed tremendously since the Geneva Convention in 1951. The definition of a refugee should be reflected in those changes.

Some countries are also arguing that this is not enough. People only want to migrate to another country as a last option ( Lessons for the Rest of the World, Helen Dempster and Kayly Ober ). Wealthier countries must first attempt to mitigate climate changes to prevent the destruction of people’s countries, families, cultures, and homes.