Environmental Conflicts, Migration and Governance

Abstract

The current era of globalization is characterized by a high degree of interconnectedness across borders and continents. This not only goes hand in hand with significant levels of international trade and foreign direct investments but also with migration, which is all too often driven by conflicts of various kinds. While various interdependencies between conflict and migration have been explored in the literature, a link that is not yet sufficiently understood relates to the interdependencies between environmental or resource-related conflicts and migration as well as the role of governance in this respect. This book strives to overcome some of these shortages in providing an interdisciplinary analysis of the interconnectedness between environmental and resource conflicts and migration. To this end, the contributions of this book address four core questions: (i) When do environmental and resource-related problems lead to conflicts and how does this create incentives for migration? How does the governance of natural resources either reduce or enhance the chances of conflicts and migration to emerge? (ii) Who leaves a country and where do migrants go? Which migration governance arrangements are at play in mediating conflicts and in directing migration flows? (iii) How do the trajectories of national, regional and international migration governance regimes look like? How effectively do they regulate environmental or resource-related migration? (iv) Which effects does migration have on possible conflict dynamics in destination countries and what is the role of governance arrangements in this respect? How do host countries participate in governance for the prevention of environmental or resource-related conflicts in countries of origin in order to reduce or prevent migration?