This report is the final publication of the European Union–funded Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Evidence for Policy (MECLEP) project. The comparative report builds on desk reviews, household surveys and qualitative interviews conducted in the six project countries (Dominican Republic, Haiti, Kenya, Republic of Mauritius, Papua New Guinea and Viet Nam) to assess the extent to which migration, including displacement and planned relocation, can benefit or undermine adaptation to environmental and climate change.

Despite the different social and environmental contexts of the six studied countries, migration serves as an adaptation strategy as it often helps migrant households to diversify income and to increase their preparedness for future hazards. Conversely, displacement due to natural hazards tends to pose challenges to adaptation as it increases the vulnerability of those displaced. Finally, planned relocation can both represents a successful adaptation strategy or expose the affected population to new vulnerabilities. In this regard, the report highlights the importance of sharing examples of good practices for locally driven and rights-based planned relocation. Other important policy implications includes the need for i) investing in disaster risk reduction and resilience to address environmental displacement and ii) integrating migration into urban planning to reduce challenges for migrants and communities of destination. The importance of paying particular attention to gender issues and to the needs of vulnerable groups such as the elderly and trapped population is also stressed.

In general, the report demonstrates how data and evidence are fundamental to formulate comprehensive policy responses and facilitate the potential positive effects of environmental migration.

This report presents the findings of the household survey and qualitative interviews conducted in the Republic of Mauritius as part of the MECLEP project. The study explores in which ways migration can serve as an adaptation strategy to environmental and climate change in the country. The household survey involved both migrants and non-migrants households and was conducted in three sites: Port Louis, Bambous/Flic-en-Flac/Tamarin and Rodrigues. The survey reveals that migration can have positive impacts on income and employment as well as on trade and investments. Moreover, migration often helps to improve migrant households‘ health conditions, education and well-being in general. However, the study also reveals that migrant households have, on average, lower income levels than non-migrant households and often face challenges in relation to discrimination and housing.

The report also provides important policy implications. In particular, it stresses the need of i) mainstreaming migration as an adaptation strategy to environmental and climate change into the policy framework of the country; ii) developing plans to ensure the well-being of migrants and enhance social cohesion in receiving areas and iii) collecting and disseminating data on migration flows to inform policy on urban planning and resource management programmes, especially in receiving areas.

This report is the sixth of the six country case reports produced in the framework of the MECLEP project, investigating to what extent migration can be seen as an adaptation strategy to environmental and climate. The study involved both a household survey and qualitative interviews in three sites: Kisumu County, Kitui County and Nairobi County. These three areas are particularly affected by floods, drought and riverbank erosion, which significantly impact on human mobility.

The survey’s findings highlight, on the one hand, how migration often facilitates the acquisition of skills and knowledge within migrant households, thus representing a positive adaptation strategy to environmental and climate change. On the other hand, the study suggests that access to services (such as water, education, health, employment and security) is often poorer among migrant households, and that migrants experience more discrimination than non-migrant households in accessing employment and social services. In light of the empirical evidence presented, the authors of the report highlight several policy implications.  Among others, it is recommended that policy and guidelines on early warning systems should be enhanced and that social protection plans should be reviewed to be more inclusive, both in sending and in receiving areas.
 

Climate change increases the risk of natural disasters and places a strain on livelihoods. This may contribute to high-risk behaviours and other negative coping strategies among affected populations, such as resorting to unscrupulous recruitment agencies associated with human smuggling and trafficking.

This IOM infosheet explores  the links between climate change, human trafficking and smuggling in the Asia-Pacific region. To address these challenges, the infosheet provides an overview of best practices from existing projects in the region.