The Security Problem with Climate Migration Isn’t the Migration

Jan 2, 2024 | Tom Ellison
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Security actors should be careful how they characterize climate change and migration. Climate migration is poised to continue growing, at an increasingly rapid rate, just as anti-immigrant politics surge, from the United States to the UK to Turkey and beyond. In this context, the security community in the Global North must be clear-eyed that the security problem with climate migration is not migrants; it is their exploitation, politicization, and abuse and the resulting fallout. Moreover, it will be important to resist ostensibly neutral language that can still give cover to xenophobic policies, and focus on the real security challenge – backlash to the more accommodating and flexible global migration system the international community will need to navigate climate change.