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Defining Environmental Migration in the Climate Change Era: Problem, Consequence or Solution?

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Disentangling Migration and Climate Change

Abstract

Environmental migration for the last 25 years has been the object of many debates and scientific controversies, mobilising different categories of policy actors. This contribution identifies the alternative definitions of the issue dominating this period, by analysing the discourse of those who were present at their origin. In accordance with their belief systems, knowledge and policy attributions, advocates support competing scenarios, whose interaction structures the definitional process. This process can be presented as a continuous effort to construct, a policy relevant issue recognised by the international community and leading to specific policy measures. At first perceived as an autonomous public problem, environmental migration has been redefined as a consequence of climate change, and lastly as a solution to climate induced vulnerability.

I would like to express my gratitude to the editors of this volume for their very enriching comments during the preparation of this article.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The term ‘refugee’ is frequently used here as means to claim the necessity of a protection regime equivalent to the one proposed by the 1951 Geneva Convention.

  2. 2.

    The latest event published is dated December 2009 (see http://www.ccema-portal.org/, last access October 2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, CURAP/CNRS University of Picardie, 32 Avenue de la Liberation, 60200, Compiegne, France

    Chloé Anne Vlassopoulos

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  1. Chloé Anne Vlassopoulos
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Correspondence to Chloé Anne Vlassopoulos .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development (COMCAD), Bielefeld University, Universitätsstrasse 25, Bielefeld, 33615, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Thomas Faist

  2. , Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Universitätsstrasse 25, Bielefeld, 33615, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Jeanette Schade

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Vlassopoulos, C.A. (2013). Defining Environmental Migration in the Climate Change Era: Problem, Consequence or Solution?. In: Faist, T., Schade, J. (eds) Disentangling Migration and Climate Change. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6208-4_6

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