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Begin New Search Topic Climate Refugees Author Lawrence Huang

1. Funding Climate Mobility Projects: Key Players and Strategies for Growth

Author:
Lawrence Huang and Samuel Davidoff-Gore
Publication Date:
03-2025
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
While international donors have long supported responses to displacement driven by natural disasters, climate change is reshaping the challenge at hand. It can worsen extreme weather events such as storms while also posing slower-onset threats such as desertification and sea level rise, which can directly and indirectly force people to move. The growing scale and complexity of climate-related mobility thus requires a paradigm shift in global funding for responses. This issue brief provides an overview of how development funders are responding to climate mobility issues, highlights entry points for donors interested in engaging on this issue, and outlines common barriers and strategies to overcome them. It examines development assistance provided via both bilateral cooperation and multilateral funding, through multilateral development banks, global climate funds, and more. This research draws on insights shared by representatives of donor governments, philanthropic foundations, and multilateral development banks as part of a multi-year Donor Community of Practice on Climate Mobility.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Migration, Governance, Mobility, and Climate Refugees
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Public Opinion of Climate Migrants: Understanding What Factors Trigger Anxiety or Support

Author:
Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan and Lawrence Huang
Publication Date:
09-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Climate change and extreme weather events are predicted to dramatically alter patterns of human mobility around the world. This poses an urgent policy question: How will receiving communities react to the arrival of people displaced by disasters and climate impacts? The degree of public support for newcomers can shape how policy responses are designed, implemented, and received by the public. But public opinion is not always easy to predict, nor is it static or fixed. A review of polling and experimental data from around the world suggests that climate migration may trigger anxiety if accompanied by a sense of disorder, unfairness, or loss of control, but also that communities can rally to support large displaced populations, given the right conditions. Efforts to increase support for climate migrants often draw on common narratives—of urgency, of climate migrants’ victimhood, or of their ability to make positive contributions to climate action—but these all come with their own risks and trade-offs. This issue brief looks at what is known about public opinion of climate migrants, and what lessons can be gleaned from broader efforts to mitigate public anxiety and build welcoming communities in the context of rapid societal change. It reflects on how common narratives can create environments more or less welcoming of climate migrants, and how they shape the space policymakers have to think creatively about how to manage climate migration.
Topic:
Migration, Public Opinion, and Climate Refugees
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. Displacement and International Protection in a Warming World

Author:
Samuel Davidoff-Gore and Lawrence Huang
Publication Date:
09-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Most climate-related displacement occurs within a country’s territory, but when people cross borders, it poses particular challenges. Policymakers in destination countries face the task of simultaneously managing borders and addressing arriving migrants’ emergency assistance and protection needs. Yet, the migration and refugee policy tools available are rarely, if ever, designed with climate displacement in mind. There is no consensus, for example, on what status climate-displaced people should receive, what rights and benefits they are entitled to, and how states should respond if climate change has rendered their homes uninhabitable. And unless policymakers proactively manage climate displacement, these movements can further weaken already fragile migration management and asylum systems. This issue brief explores what role the international protection system can and should play in responses to cross-border climate displacement and highlights steps policymakers could take to diversify the policy toolkit beyond the protection realm.
Topic:
Climate Change, Migration, Refugees, Displacement, Protection, and Climate Refugees
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Engaging Local Communities for More Effective Climate Mobility Programming

Author:
Lawrence Huang and Camille Le Coz
Publication Date:
10-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Climate change does not affect all communities the same way. Floods in one location can cause massive, long-term displacement and even permanent relocation, while they might only trigger short-term evacuations elsewhere. This depends to a significant extent on how vulnerable communities are to begin with and the resources they have to cope and adapt. And because the impacts of climate change on human mobility are highly localized, the solutions need to be as well. In this context, localization means designing solutions to prevent displacement and support safe migration in ways that account for a specific community’s ability to recover, rebuild, and adapt, as well as its aspirations and priorities. Local stakeholders—including municipal authorities and local nongovernmental organizations—have a key role to play in this space, often alongside international and national actors, given their first-hand grasp of local needs and dynamics. This issue brief explores the importance of localization in climate migration solutions, as well as common barriers that have kept local actors from taking on greater roles. It also offers recommendations for turning localization from a rhetorical commitment into practical action.
Topic:
Climate Change, International Cooperation, Migration, Localization, and Climate Refugees
Political Geography:
Global Focus