INTERNATIONAL DEFINITIONS
For many across the globe, conventions of home and property are a luxury they cannot afford. Whether as a result of disaster or despotic political turbulence, many lives are upended in the wake of relocation. What constitutes a nationalized body or an internationalized body is unclear, and in the wake of divisive rhetorical wars it is often the people who need the most support that do not receive it. This dilemma can be considered a problem of accountability. Currently, the United Nation’s only system for the protection of refugees forced from their homelands is known as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). As it exists today, it mainly focuses its efforts on political refugees who are protected under the Geneva Convention and the Protocol of 1967.
The term “climate refugees,” a term that refers to migrants forced from their homes as a result of sudden or gradual changes in environmental conditions such as water scarcity, sea level rise, or extreme weather events, has only been recognized by the UNHCR since 2018. “Migration is nearly always multicausal” (Gray 1239), referencing the difficulty international bodies face when identifying and assisting climate migrants. Multiplicity is often difficult to diagnose, which has been a significant hurdle for climate activists when trying to define the subtle nature of ecological destruction. This leads us to understand that individuals impacted by shifting climates are not simply refugees, a refugee being someone evicted from their resident country to escape war, persecution, or disaster. “Climigration” or “Climate migration” instead, is a term that was introduced by Robin Bronen, executive director of the Alaska Institute for Justice, to replace the common misnomer “climate refugee,” depicting those displaced by climate-related shifts as migrants.