GENDEREDCLIMATEMIG · Internal and international climate-induced migration, gendered inequalities and governance: understanding migration decisions, exploring migration experiences

The World Bank estimates that climate change will force 216 million people to leave their homes by 2050. Using UN data, the Australian think tank IEP calculates that 1.2 billion people risk being displaced by 2050 because of ecological threats. Beyond alarmist projections of which we need to be wary, and as a matter of fact, we know little about the articulation of internal and international climate-induced migration because once those on the move cross borders they become labour migrants, asylum seekers or undocumented migrants, with climate-related causes rendered invisible. In the absence of any internationally recognized status for climate migrants, it remains unclear what proportion of international migration flows are also caused, at least partially, by changes in people’s natural environments that relate to climate change. Importantly, we know even less about the gendered inequalities that permeate these forms of mobility. To fill this crucial gap, GENDEREDCLIMATEMIG explores climate-induced internal and international migration, and their articulation, from a gendered perspective and through an interdisciplinary, comparative and participatory methodology. This project will produce highly informative ethnographic case-studies in 3 middle-income countries and regional migration hubs (Mexico, Morocco and Malaysia) along with a multi-sited and gender-sensitive enquiry into the current state of climate migration governance at international (e.g. Platform on Disaster Displacement) and national levels, exploring original national policy initiatives (e.g. in Norway, Peru and Kenya). The qualitative and participatory methodology of this research promises to lend unique insights into the decision-making processes, trajectories and lives of climate migrants through a gendered lens. GENDEREDCLIMATEMIG will advance our understanding of the under-researched climate-migration-gender nexus while carving out more space for migrants’ voices.