Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Environmental Refugees? Classifying Human Migrations Caused by Environmental Change

  • Published:
Population and Environment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

What distinguishes environmental refugees from other refugees—or other migrants? Are all environmental refugees alike? This essay develops a classification to begin to answer these questions and facilitate future policies and research on environmental refugees. Environmental refugees may have considerable control over the decision to migrate, but this varies by the type of environmental disruption. The origin, intention, and duration of environmental disruptions shape the type of refugee. Refugees from disasters and expropriations have limited control over whether environmental changes will produce migration. Gradual degradation allows “environmental emigrants” to determine how they will respond to environmental change.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Bates, D. C. (1996). Partners Across Borders: August 1996 Delegation to El Salvador. St. Cloud, MN: Parters Across Borders.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bates, D. C. (2000). Environmental Refugees? Colonist Migration from the Ecuadorian Amazon. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Rutgers University, New Brunswick.

  • Bevis, W. W. (1995). Borneo Log: The Struggle for Sarawak's Forests. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Black, R. (1998). Refugees, Environment, and Development. Singapore: Addison Wesley Longman Singapore (Pte) Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Black, R. & Sessay, M. F. (1997). Forced migration, environmental change, and woodfuel issues in the Senegal River Valley. Environmental Conservation 24, 251–260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bullard, R. D. (1994). Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Danner, M. (1993). The Massacre at El Mozote. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglas, D. (1996). Environmental eviction. Christian Century 11, 839–841.

    Google Scholar 

  • El-Hinnawi, E. (1985). Environmental Refugees. Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Environmental Programme.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foresta, R. A. (1991). Amazon Conservation in the Age of Development: The Limits of Providence. Gainesville: University of Florida Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs, L. M. (1982). Love Canal: My Story. New York: Grove Press, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glassman, J. (1992). Counter-insurgency, ecocide and the production of refugees: Warfare as a tool of modernization. Refuge: Canada's Periodical on Refugees 12, 27–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, P. (1993). The Third Revolution: Population, Environment, and A Sustainable World. New York: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hubbel, D. & Rajesh, N. (1992). Not seeing the people for the forest: Thailand's program of reforestation by forced eviction. Refuge: Canada's Periodical on Refugees 12, 20–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hugo, G. (1996). Environmental concerns and international migration. International Migration Review 30, 105–131.

    Google Scholar 

  • Islam, M. (1992). Natural calamities and environmental refugees in Bangladesh. Refuge: Canada's Periodical on Refugees 12, 5–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobson, J. L. (1988). Environmental Refugees: A Yardstick of Habitability. Worldwatch Paper 86. Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kane, J. (1995). Savages. New York: Knopf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kunz, E. F. (1973). The Refugee in flight: Kinetic models and forms of displacement. International Migration Review 7, 124–146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lou, Y. (2000). Immigration policy adjusted in Three Gorges. Beijing Review 43, 23–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, J. T. (1989). Redefining security. Foreign Affairs 68, 162–177.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, G. T. (1991). Environmental Science: Sustaining the Earth, 3rd Edition. Belmont, CA: Wordsworth Publishing Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millikan, B. H. (1992). Tropical Deforestation, Land Degradation, and Society: Lessons from Rondonia, Brazil. Latin American Perspectives 19, 45–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monastersky, R. (1997). Eruption on Montserrat gaining strength. Science News 152, 101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, N. (1993a). Environmental refugees in a globally warmed world. Bioscience 43, 752–761.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, N. (1993b). Ultimate Security: The Environmental Basis of Political Stability. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, N. (1995). Environmental Exodus: An Emergent Crisis in the Global Arena. Washington DC: Climate Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, N. (1997). Environmental refugees. Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 19, 167–182.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Connor, G. (1997). Amazon Journal: Dispatches from a Vanishing Frontier. New York: Dutton.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Lear. S. (1997). Migration and the environment: a review of recent literature. Social Science Quarterly 78, 608–618.

    Google Scholar 

  • Otunnu, O. (1992). Environmental refugees in sub-Saharan Africa: Causes and effects. Refuge: Canada's Periodical on Refugees 12, 11–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peluso, N. L. (1993). Coercing conservation? The politics of state resource control. Global Environmental Change 3, 199–218.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pérez-Lugo, M. (1999). The Mass media, political fragmentation, and environmental injustice in Puerto Rico: A Case study of the floods in Barrio Tortugo. Boulder, CO: Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perout, A. (1995). Environmental Refugees: Defining Environmental Migrants and Long Term Solutions to Deal with Environmental Migration. Masters Thesis in Geography. Montreal: Concordia University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrow, C. (1984). Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramlogan, R. (1996). Environmental refugees: A Review. Environmental Conservation 23, 81–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogge, J.R. (1992). Coping with mines: A Critical risk for repatriating Kurds. Refuge: Canada's Periodical on Refugees 12, 31–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rybizki, R. (1992). Environmental disasters in the Western Republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Refuge: Canada's Periodical on Refugees 12, 22–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sahabat Alam Malaysia. (1992). Environmental displacement in Malaysia: The Effects of the development process on rural and native communities. Refuge: Canada's Periodical on Refugees 12, 15–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schnaiberg, A. & Gould, K.A. (1994). Environment and Society: The Enduring Conflict. New York: St. Martin's Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shrestha, N. R. (1989). Frontier settlment and landlessness among hill migrants in Nepal Tarai. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 79, 370–389.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suhrke, A. (1994). Environmental degradation and population flows. Journal of International Affairs 47, 473–496.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tolba, M. K. (1989). Our biological heritage under siege. Bioscience 39, 725–728.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westing, A. H. (1992). Environmental refugees: A Growing category of displaced persons. Environmental Conservation 19, 201–207.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westing, A. H. (1994). Population, desertification, and migration. Environmental Conservation 21, 110–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitney, J. (1992). The Three Gorges Project in China. Refuge: Canada's Periodical on Refugees 12, 24–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zmolek, M. (1992). Damming the Narmada and the Three Gorges. Refuge: Canada's Periodical on Refugees 12, 33–38.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Sam Houston State University, Box 2446, Huntsville, TX, 77341

    Diane C. Bates

Authors
  1. Diane C. Bates
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bates, D.C. Environmental Refugees? Classifying Human Migrations Caused by Environmental Change. Population and Environment 23, 465–477 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015186001919

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015186001919

Search

Navigation