Migration and Environmental Change in International Governance: The Case of the European Union

Andrew Geddes and William Somerville
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Andrew Geddes: Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, Elmfield, Northumberland Road, Sheffield S10 2TU, England
William Somerville: Migration Policy Institute, 1400 16th St NW, Ste 300, Washington, DC 20036, USA

Environment and Planning C, 2012, vol. 30, issue 6, 1015-1028

Abstract: With this paper we analyse and assess the role of the European Union (EU) in the governance of migration linked to environmental change. We trace the emergence of migration linked to environmental change as an issue on the EU agenda and examine both issue definition and the institutional location of EU responses. The EU is identified as a particularly significant potential actor in the broader debate about environmental change and migration, as it is the world's most developed form of regionalised supranational governance with responsibilities in the areas of both environmental and migration policy, albeit with little connection made, as yet, between the two. We show that the relationship between migration and environmental change emerged as an issue for the EU's foreign policy community before becoming part of the EU's ‘Global Approach to Migration and Mobility’. We argue that there is a compelling argument for consideration of migration and environmental change in the context of adaptation and development policies, as well as broader debate and contestation of the meaning of these policies. This involves a rethink of some of the precepts and practices informing EU migration and asylum policy.

Keywords: migration; environmental change; European Union; security; adaptation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirc:v:30:y:2012:i:6:p:1015-1028

DOI: 10.1068/c1249j

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