New Typology for Environmentally-induced Migration

The concept of environmentally-induced migration is closely connected to its theoretical origin of ‘forced migration.' While the legal definition of environmental migrants remains widely debated, classifying environmentally-induced migration has become a necessary first step to the understanding of needs and magnitude of such migrants. This study aims to formulate a new typology of environmentally-induced migration based on different time duration and settlement characteristics. Environmentally motivated migrants category contains those who exercise their relatively maximum and genuine freedom of choice to move, primarily due to the potential environment changes. The second category of environmental displacees includes those who are forced to leave, because people’s livelihoods and welfare have been at risk as a result of adverse environmental processes. With respect to the migration urgency, two subcategories can be further distinguished as slow-onset environmental displacees and rapid-onset environmental displacees. Lastly, those who are intentionally resettled due to a planned land-use change are referred to as development displacees. The cause is anthropogenic in nature. International sporting events and wildlife conservation projects may also result in development displacees.