When it comes to climate change and migration (whose connection is not necessarily direct but definitely worth considering), the trend in the past decade has been that of framing them in a rather alarmist way. ‘Population pressure’, ‘mass migration’, ‘security threat’... Rather than an (albeit rather partial) adaptation strategy, or a legitimate right, climate-amplified migration is increasingly viewed as a matter of national security that Western countries need to deal with. Not human security to those on the frontline of natural hazards, climate conflicts or displacement, but security of Western recipient countries. This has been mirrored by a series of very strict migration policies and by a growing militarisation of climate resilience aid interventions.

How can we change the narrative of ‘climate migration’ so that it isn’t co-opted by closed-borders, “nation-securing”, interventionist foreign policies in Western countries? What value do words have in this case? On a more concrete level, what can we do to change the way climate-amplified migration is tackled?

Join us for this conference, in which we will count on high level speakers to answer to the previous questions: Dr Elisabeth Hartmann, Ms Anne Hendrixson and Dr Jürgen Scheffran.

It will take place online on March 17th 2022 at 18:30(link to be received via email before the start of the conference). We are also exploring the possibility of hosting it also onsite at Sciences Po Menton campus for Sciences Po students, we will let you know in case this option is made available.