Climate Migration: Critical Perspectives for Law, Policy, and Research

This book investigates the epistemological and ethical challenges faced by studies exploring the relations between climate change and human migration. At the heart of the contemporary preoccupation with climate change is a concern for its societal impacts. Among these, its presumed effect on human migration is perhaps the most politically resonant, regardless of whether that politics is oriented towards human or national security. There is, however, a problem: research on the causal link between climate change and migration has shown it to be a highly equivocal one. By extension, it remains unclear what - if any - response is required from law and policy. Carefully structured to guide the reader through the issue of 'climate migration' in a logical and rigorous manner, this book is the first to bring together key critiques, caveats, and cautions in order to systematically examine the challenges facing law, policy, and research on the topic. At a time in which both the effects of climate change and the causes of migration are of great public and political interest, and in which these interests are often fraught with sentiment and freighted with politics, the book brings dispassionately critical perspectives to bear on a topic that desperately needs it.

Table of Contents:
Foreword, Betsy Hartmann (Hampshire College, USA) Introduction, Calum TM Nicholson (Cambridge University, UK) and Benoit Mayer (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong) Part I: Content 1. Conceptualizing ‘Climate Migration’, Calum TM Nicholson (Cambridge University, UK) 2. Climate Change-Disaster-Migration: Manufacturing a Nexus, Ilan Kelman (University College London, UK and University of Agder, Norway) 3. 'Climate Migration’? Empirical Insights and Conceptual Cautions from Political Ecology and Migration Studies, Gunvor Jónsson (Office for National Statistics, UK) Part II: Context 4. The ‘Others’ in John Lanchester’s The Wall, Gregory White (Smith College, USA) 5. Obstacles to Action on ‘Climate Migration’: A Story of Persistent Analytical and Political Ambiguity, David Durand-Delacre (UN University Institute for Environment and Human Security, Germany) 6. The View from the Fortress: European Governance Perspectives on Climate Change and Migration, Sarah Louise Nash (University for Continuity Education Krems, Austria) 7. Race, Migration, and Climate Change: A Cautionary Note, Andrew Baldwin (Durham University, UK) Part III: Implications for Research, Policy, and Law 8. Identifying as a ‘Climate Migrant’: Implications for Law, Policy, and Research, Carol Farbotko (Griffith University, Australia) 9. International Law, the Climate-Migration Nexus, and Teitiota v New Zealand, Giovanna Lauria (Court of Padua, Italy) 10. De-Conceptualizing ‘Climate Migration’, Benoit Mayer (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong) Conclusion, Calum TM Nicholson (Cambridge University, UK) and Benoit Mayer (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

About the Author :
Calum Nicholson is Tutor and Lecturer at the Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge, UK. Benoit Mayer is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Review :
Taken as a whole, the book is a persuasive and timely exposure to the lack of a scientifically demonstrated causal link between climate and migration, despite the work of law and policy experts that suggests otherwise.