Social Work and Support for Climate-Related Indigenous Migrants from South America

Abstract

Climate change is a crucial environmental justice issue that calls for the urgent attention and intervention of social work. Climate change exacerbates poverty, health risks, food insecurity, and loss of livelihood for millions of Indigenous and agricultural communities of the world. The climate crisis will change migration patterns, generating internally and internationally displaced people. This article focuses on climate change-related crises that result in the loss of livelihood and forced migration in the Peruvian Andes, Brazilian Amazon, and Colombian Caribbean. Three case composites illustrating this intersection are included. Given the annual rise of climate-related displacements, US-based social workers will be presented with the challenge of meeting the needs of increased climate refugees over time. Using tenets from Indigenous feminism and structural social work theory, US-based social workers can intervene at the mezzo and macro social levels through community action, such as collaboration with community health promoters, policy advocacy, and education. Social workers, in tandem with climate refugees, must facilitate community-based empowerment and education opportunities to identify environmental injustices and reconnect with Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge in the development of natural resource planning to adapt to climate change. Social workers and community members can also mobilize to advocate for policy change by recognizing an international definition of climate refugees and legal protections. The authors also propose that social workers across levels of experience need education and training about climate change and its consequences on the livelihood of Indigenous communities and their role in this environmental justice issue.