{"id":485,"date":"2021-09-13T21:00:23","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T21:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/?p=485"},"modified":"2024-09-10T20:50:01","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T20:50:01","slug":"the-coming-wave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/the-coming-wave\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Wave"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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As climate change threatens, lawyers drive policy on global migration<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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By Adam Stone<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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What if millions of people around the globe were to relocate in order to escape the effects of climate change? The question is more than theoretical.<\/p>

\u201cThese migrations are already occurring.\u00a0This is something that is happening today,\u201d says\u00a0<\/span>Prof. Nienke Grossman<\/b><\/a>, co-director of the\u00a0<\/span>Center for International and Comparative Law<\/a>\u00a0at Baltimore Law.<\/span><\/p>

Climate migration, as it\u2019s known, brings with it a range of legal implications. From immigration law to environmental law, from\u00a0public policy to economic development: Attorneys across the board\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0will have a role to play in shaping the way society responds to this crisis in the making.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Nienke Grossman<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Understanding climate migration<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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It\u2019s widely understood that rising temperatures, worsening weather events, lack of water and loss of arable land \u2014 all effects of climate change \u2014 will drive future migration patterns.<\/p>\n

\u201cMigration and mobility are adaptation strategies in all regions of the world that experience climate variability,\u201d according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<\/a>. \u201cMoving from one place to another is a fundamental way humans respond to challenging conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

As director for public policy at the Lutheran Immigration Refugee Service<\/a>, Jill Bussey, J.D. \u201903<\/b>, is already seeing this firsthand. \u201cClimate change is really no longer this threat looming in the distance. It is a destructive force, just as destructive as war, violence and persecution, and it is happening right now,\u201d she says. \u201cWe are seeing the effect of climate change throughout the people that we serve, through our refugee resettlement program and through our family and child services programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a><\/i> points to Guatemala as a likely example of what the future holds. Declining rainfalls will eventually reduce crop yields by one-third, driving people off the land there. Now multiply this on a global scale: \u201cBy 2070, the kind of extremely hot zones, like in the Sahara, that now cover less than 1 percent of the earth\u2019s land surface could cover nearly a fifth of the land,\u201d the newspaper reports.<\/p>\n

The result will be massive shifts in population \u2014 as many as 143 million people on the move in Latin America, East Africa and South Asia alone, according to the Migration Policy Institute.<\/p>\n

This will be problematic from a policy point of view, says Prof. Elizabeth Keyes<\/b><\/a>, director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic<\/a> at Baltimore Law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who are most vulnerable to climate change will be the ones who are the least likely to have options available to them,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019re not going to be professional people or highly skilled people. It\u2019s going to impact poor, uneducated people, the economically vulnerable. And those are exactly the people that nobody wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under present law, there\u2019s no such thing as a \u201cclimate refugee.\u201d Asylum seekers can claim their status if they\u2019re persecuted for their religious beliefs, or if their political activities put them in jeopardy. \u201cBut individuals who leave their home communities due to climate change fall within a gap in international law,\u201d Grossman says.<\/span><\/p>\n

A lack of solid research hinders efforts to close that gap, says Prof. Sonya Ziaja<\/b><\/a>, who teaches environmental law. While the world has known for decades about the likelihood of climate migration, \u201cthere has not been a lot of good data around this. There hasn\u2019t been a lot of good research on it,\u201d she says. \u201cAs a result, there are a lot of unknowns about where people are likely to go, under what circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

We can add to this a general reluctance to tinker with asylum statutes. \u201cAnything that tries to expand the asylum law system is going to potentially weaken it out of existence,\u201d Keyes says. \u201cIt is totally under-resourced, it\u2019s a broken part of a broken system, and in general <\/span>it\u2019s just really unpopular.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the hurdles, experts say, there is much the legal community can do to lay the groundwork for a coming wave of climate migration.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Looking to precedent<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Lawyers love precedent, and there are a number of key examples from the past that help to describe possible legal approaches to climate migration.<\/p>

Grossman points to a case in which a Pacific Islander sued New Zealand for deporting him to his home state, which at the time was threatened by rising seas. He lost the case for technical reasons, \u201cbut the court did say that it may be unlawful for governments to send people back to countries where the effects of climate change may expose them to risks which threaten their lives,\u201d Grossman says.<\/p>

Keyes likewise points to efforts by the United States to make migration available to people from the Marshall Islands in Micronesia, after American nuclear testing contaminated those islands.<\/p>

Examples like these could help establish legal precedent for action on climate migration. Basic tort law also may provide an avenue.<\/p>

\u201cThe idea of torts is that when you have done damage to somebody else, you should compensate them. You should make them whole,\u201d says Keyes. \u201cWhen we look at the places where people have to leave because of climate, these are not the neighborhoods and communities and countries that are responsible for climate change.\u201d<\/p>

Developed nations are heating the globe, making developing places unlivable. By basic tort law, Keyes suggests, the industrial countries have an obligation to address the damage they\u2019ve caused.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Driving policy<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"\"
Brianna Thomas<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Third-year student Brianna Thomas<\/b> has researched climate impacts in the course of her legal studies. She sees much room for improvement in the current system.<\/p>

\u201cWe need to create protections for people who are fleeing these things. We\u2019re not going to prevent the climate from changing right now, so we\u2019re going to have to move toward adaptation and helping people navigate the life effects that are going to impact them,\u201d says Thomas, who in August completed a prestigious internship with the\u00a0National Resources Defense Council<\/a>.<\/p>

\u201cBeing an attorney means being an advocate. It\u2019s about helping people navigate through the most uncertain and most troubling and traumatic things they\u2019ve ever had to go through. In that respect, the legal community can be trying to make these things clearer. We can be talking about climate migration before it becomes a catastrophe or a disaster, rather than dealing with it retroactively.\u201d<\/p>

Despite the uncertainties \u2014 who will move? where? when? \u2014 we know enough to start crafting policy today.<\/p>

\u201cWe can assume that most people will go to climates that are better,\u201d says Ziaja. Coastal people will move inland as waters rise; people in hotter climates will move to more temperate zones. \u201cWhen climate causes politically unstable environments, or a lack of security, or when people\u2019s homes simply become uninhabitable or no longer exist, people are going to move, and we desperately need a framework to address that at multiple levels of government,\u201d she says.<\/p>

That means there will be legal work to do in the realm of immigration law at the national and international levels. Someone will need to advocate for new classes of visas, for example. Environmental lawyers may also play a role in helping to craft the new rules of the road. \u201cThere has to be a policy change, and lawyers can help to drive that,\u201d Ziaja says.<\/p>

Along those lines, she notes, no single nation need shoulder the burden. Lawyers could help to craft international alliances, where masses of refugees could be dispersed among multiple hosts, much as the European Union has done with Syrian refugees. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason one country has to be the answer to this,\u201d she says.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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A human right<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Lawyers also could help to formulate the guiding principles of climate migration, by framing this as a human rights issue first and foremost.\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cUnder international human rights law, people have the right to life,\u201d Grossman says. The mechanisms of life \u2014 adequate food, housing, clean water, sanitation \u2014 all are imperiled by climate change. That makes climate migration a human rights issue.<\/p>

\u201cLawyers can continue to work on broader issues about guaranteeing human rights to all migrants,\u201d she says. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean we have to let in everyone, but it does mean that when people are here, we have an obligation under international human rights law to treat them in certain ways.\u201d<\/p>

She pointed to the\u00a0Biden administration\u2019s recent executive order<\/a>\u00a0on climate migration as a good starting point. It called for a report on the implications of climate migration, which Grossman describes as an important first step in driving policy changes.\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cIt will be interesting to see how the definition of \u2018refugee\u2019 evolves and whether attorneys continue to develop their arguments about who should be included within it,\u201d Grossman says.<\/p>

Bussey says she has high hopes for that report, which was due to be completed in August 2021.<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping the report from this administration will provide more context for our analysis into the current legal climate, the current policy framework,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat\u2019s already clear is that there are visible gaps in our current legal system. There is a dire need to reform our system and to broaden the grounds for protection.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Elizabeth Keyes<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Start local<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Climate migration is to some extent an international issue.<\/p>

\u201cThere are all sorts of mechanisms that talk about a right to leave a country, but there\u2019s no companion right to enter another country,\u201d Keyes says.\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cAnd yet, when people cannot survive on the land, then they are going to have to go someplace else.\u201d<\/p>

At the same time, there are ways in which the legal community on the national level, and even the local level, can help to address the situation. And\u00a0while it\u2019s likely that immigration attorneys and environmental lawyers will be on the front lines of that effort, there\u2019s a role for others as well \u2014 especially lawyers who may be engaged in activities related to local economic development, housing, and other issues touching civic policy.<\/span><\/p>

Ziaja lays it out as follows. Climate refugees will have to go somewhere, and it\u2019s likely they will head toward already established communities in places less impacted by drought, severe weather, rising seas, and so\u00a0on. The catch: People already live in those places.<\/span><\/p>

We\u2019ll therefore need thoughtful public policy to accommodate the newcomers.<\/p>

\u201cIf you are involved in land-use issues, in any kind of city planning, you have a major role to play,\u201d she says. Those who work on housing issues, who litigate against unfair evictions or advocate in favor of policies that make affordable housing more readily available, \u201call of them can be watching this as a major area of concern,\u201d she says.<\/p>

In this regard, the entire legal apparatus may at some point touch upon issues related to climate migration. \u201cProfessors and judges and legislators all can be talking about this issue, raising awareness even just at the local and regional level,\u201d Ziaja says. \u201cAll of that makes\u00a0a difference.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Of course, we could just do nothing and wait for the floodgates to open. But that may not be the smartest course of action.<\/p>

\u201cSo here\u2019s the really bad news,\u201d Ziaja says. \u201cFor many of us in the United States, within the next century, our families are likely to be climate migrants themselves.\u201d<\/p>

Climate change won\u2019t just impact less developed nations. America\u2019s coastal cities and southern states will get hit, too, and that will have an immediate local impact.<\/p>

\u201cCanada is likely looking down on us and thinking: How are we going to handle a bunch of people from Arizona moving up here? As far-fetched as that might seem today, it\u2019s something that the Canadian government is certainly concerned about,\u201d Ziaja says. \u201cAnd it applies equally to this region, to Baltimore. We\u2019re going to need to be ready to handle an influx.\u201d<\/p>

Lawyers also can help to move the needle by asserting the basic rights of would-be climate migrants.<\/p>

\u201cThe asylum system is overdue for reform, the process itself is broken. In particular, attorneys can advocate for the independence of our judiciary and for due process in immigration hearings,\u201d Bussey says. \u201cEven if they don\u2019t know all of the intricacies of asylum law, lawyers who understand the basic concept of due process can fight for that basic constitutional principle.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Domestic Impacts of Climate Change<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
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Lisa Blitstein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nLaw student Lisa Blitstein<\/b> has been researching the impact of domestic climate migration \u2014 Americans moving inland to escape coastal flooding, as well as those displaced by wildfires and other extreme-weather impacts of climate change. Cities like Buffalo, NY and parts of Michigan are already looking at ways to court these future migrants to bolster their local workforces.<\/span>\n\n Blitstein, due to earn her degree in 2022, says lawyers will have a key role to play as climate change intensifies and such migrations become more common.<\/span>\n\n \u201cClimate impacts already are visibly producing migrants,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can see coastal flooding. You can see people displaced by wildfires in California. You can see unprecedented snowfall just this past winter in Texas. That is a consequence of temperature fluctuations coming out of climate change, and it disproportionately impacts people in poverty, people in low-income communities.\u201d<\/span>\n\n That\u2019s where the lawyers come in.<\/span>\n\n \u201cThe lawyer as advocate in this situation can help to redirect conversations so that decisions, rather than being made on behalf of people, are really being made by the people,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a \u2018participatory governance\u2019 model, in the realm of public policy, where the lawyers are helping impacted communities to understand political processes so that they can be active actors in the process.\u201d<\/span>\n\n She points to the Baltimore-Washington area, which likely will receive climate migrants in the coming years.<\/span>\n\n \u201cThere are already people who live here, obviously. How do we create ample resources for cohabitation? How do we navigate the social impacts that this will produce?\u201d Blitstein says. \u201cLawyers have a role in helping to create those balances, helping to navigate those conversations.\u201d<\/span>\n\n The legal community is naturally poised to fill that role of trusted advocate.<\/span>\n\n \u201cSomething that people may forget is that lawyers are storytellers,\u201d she says. \u201cIn this situation, that is essential. Someone needs to make clear in the minds of people what it looks like to be a climate migrant, what it looks like to have to leave your home, leave everything behind. A lawyer has the essential skill of communication that will be needed to make these conversations real and meaningful.\u201d<\/span><\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Take a Closer Look<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Join us Tuesday, October 26 at 5 p.m. for a UB Law in Focus webinar on this topic, featuring the three professors quoted in this piece.\u00a0Register for the event.<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Adam Stone<\/strong> is a writer based in Baltimore.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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As climate change threatens, lawyers drive policy on global migration By Adam Stone What if millions of people around the globe were to relocate in order to escape the effects of climate change? The question is more than theoretical. \u201cThese migrations are already occurring.\u00a0This is something that is happening today,\u201d says\u00a0Prof. Nienke Grossman, co-director of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1244,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1060,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions\/1060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}