Climate change is now widely understood to be a leading factor for climate induced migration. As such, planning for and facilitating migration is becomming increasingly important for reducing the future costs and increasing human security. However, concrete policy and systems for appropriately managing migration are still lacking. Ongoing research is demonstrating that innovative social protection programmes can play an important role in addressing the root causes of and facilitating climate induced migration (Schwan & Yu, 2017).
Social protection refers to “all public and private initiatives that provide income or consumption transfers to the poor, protect the vulnerable against livelihood risks and enhance the social status and rights of the marginalised” (Devereux & Sabates-Wheeler, 2004).
In order for countries to reduce the occurances of climate induced displacement, they must plan and prepare for natural disasters and extreme weather events and take the appropriate steps to ensure that all people have access to an adequate standard of living. People are more likely to leave their homes if they are not provided adequate social assistance to adapt to the climate related impacts. Social protection has been proven an efficient method for strenghtening the resilience of communities against climate change.
However, migration is not always negative. In fact, it can be a very powerful tool for coping and adapting to shocks. Social protection can help provide the means for people to migrate in times of distress through the receipt of regular cash transfers. The guaranteed income stream lowers the cost of migration, allowing households to broaden their economic base through migration; by moving to cities with more opportunities for higher wage employment that can grant them the opportunity to move out of poverty. Staying home in areas that lack food security only exacerbates poverty.
Social protection can offer an opportunity to reduce the vulnerability of migrants, migrating in response to climate change impacts. However, there are many barriers in the way of migrants accessing social protection benefits. As of now, access to social protection is constrained for non-nationals, including displaced people and migrants living in a country affected by a shock. Additionally, many migrants work in the informal sector, which means that they do not have access to social security benefits. This type of employment already lends them more vulnerable to shocks. Social protection programmes will need to be tailored with migration and displacement in mind.
Sources & further reading:
Longhurst, D., & Slater, R. (2022). Shock-responsive social protection: what is known about what works in fragile and conflict-affected situations?.
Mueller, V., Gray, C., Handa, S., & Seidenfeld, D. (2020). Do social protection programs foster short-term and long-term migration adaptation strategies?. Environment and development economics, 25(2), 135-158.
Schwan, S., & Yu, X. (2017). Social protection as a strategy to address climate-induced migration. International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management.
