International migration and environmental change: legal frameworks for international adaptive migration

Abstract

The focus of this research lies on international migration as a strategy to adapt to changing environmental conditions, and on the legal frameworks needed to facilitate such international adaptive migration. More in particular, the relevance of both international environmental law and regional migration law to deal with environment-induced migration is scrutinized. The objective of the thesis is to discuss whether existing legal and policy frameworks in these areas are sufficiently equipped to facilitate international adaptive migration, and to analyse if and how those frameworks should be adapted to this end. This thesis therefore reviews the existing social science and legal literature as well as the global policy debate on the topic, leading to a typology and definitions of environment-induced population movements. International environmental law is then analysed as a possible legal framework to facilitate international adaptive migration. Furthermore, through a case study of European migration law and policy, this thesis examines how adaptive migration can be brought to practice, focusing on the European Union. The study finally leads to a set of legal and policy options to support and facilitate international migration as a strategy to adapt to a changing environment, thereby bridging the gap between environmental law and migration law as two separate legal frameworks to address this issue.

Public defense: 2014-10-06 18:00

The focus of this research lies on international migration as a strategy to adapt to changing environmental conditions, and on the legal frameworks needed to facilitate such international adaptive migration. More in particular, the relevance of both international environmental law and regional migration law to deal with environment-induced migration is scrutinized. The objective of the thesis is to discuss whether existing legal and policy frameworks in these areas are sufficiently equipped to facilitate international adaptive migration, and to analyse if and how those frameworks should be adapted to this end. This thesis therefore reviews the existing social science and legal literature as well as the global policy debate on the topic, leading to a typology and definitions of environment-induced population movements. International environmental law is then analysed as a possible legal framework to facilitate international adaptive migration. Furthermore, through a case study of European migration law and policy, this thesis examines how adaptive migration can be brought to practice, focusing on the European Union. The study finally leads to a set of legal and policy options to support and facilitate international migration as a strategy to adapt to a changing environment, thereby bridging the gap between environmental law and migration law as two separate legal frameworks to address this issue.

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