“Despite the growing body of evidence on the impacts of climate change on health, it is perhaps surprising that we know so little about the triangular relationship between health, migration, and climate change”, writes Renzo Guinto, our 2016 New Voices Fellow along with Dominik Zenner and Helena Legido-Quigley in their latest article, first in a series of papers, for the Journal of Migration and Health.
As noted by Renzo and the other authors, while migration can be seen as a societal response for moderating some of the worst health effects of climate change, it can also in some contexts worsen health outcomes and well-being. Popular terms such as “climate migrants” and “climate refugees”, as highlighted by the authors, run the risk of being reductionist as they fail to sufficiently reflect the complexity of migration in relation to climate change.
Through this collection of papers, Renzo and the other authors seek to outline the nexus of migration, human health, climate change, and planetary health – specifically examining its the drivers, impacts and response to make concrete policy recommendations as well as recommendations for future research. “This special issue therefore sets the scene for the beginning of the journey to bring this triangle of health, migration and climate change conceptually together”, the authors ultimately write as they set to not only understand but also quantify this complex nexus.
To read more click below.