The Challenges of Climate Change for Migration

Absztrakt

Nowadays, when we want to describe environmental conditions, terms like air, water and soil pollution, melting glaciers, devastating drought, rising sea levels, population problems or the decrease of biodiversity are among the first ones to come up. The environment has always been a driver of migration. The estimation on the total number of environmental migrants due to global factors such as population growth, poverty, governance, human security and conflict, which have a huge impact, is quite challenging. As for the predictions, this amount may range from 25 million to one billion by the year 2050.2 Europe has become one of the most important immigration destinations in recent decades, and migratory pressures are increasing. Furthermore, the continent is affected not only by external exodus, but also by internal migration, as a result of environmental degradation, which can also be observed there, further accelerating the process of internal migration. The immigration policies of most destination countries are not conducive to receiving large numbers of environmental migrants, unless they enter through already existing admission categories. Thus typically, the purpose of the residence is employment, education and family reunification, but what about the people who had to leave their homes because of the environmental degradation? During the coronavirus pandemic economic activity slowed down, causing a reduction in carbon emissions, but due to the constant deterioration of the environmental conditions there are a lot of discussions about the term sustainable development. The aim of this study is to demonstrate how climate change has a major role to play in the migration tendencies, as it may amplify the existing political, social or economic problems. Discussing this topic, it is inevitable to use the term environmental refugee. After an overview of the relevant scientific literature, the author looks for the answer to the question whether there have been any changes in the regulations since the introduction of this concept.