Environmental Migration: A Voluntary Relocation or a Forced Measure — Constitutional and Legal Aspects

The purpose of the article is that it is devoted to environmental migration as one of the factors in the well-being of citizens' lives. The author identifies problems associated with forced migration of the population due to ongoing natural disasters. The study offers the author's definitions of voluntary and forced migration. A comparison is made of economic, social, and political factors that have both a positive and negative impact on migration flows. This phenomenon, caused by numerous factors, contributes to the active movement of citizens both within a particular state and moving to others. The legal nature of environmental migration indicates its versatility, but despite this, today there is no specific definition of what should be understood by it. The definitions of researchers of the problem we have identified boil down to the fact that people leaving their places of residence voluntarily/forcedly focus on expected or already occurring natural disasters (droughts, floods, earthquakes, etc.). It is concluded that the definition of environmental migration is not fully formed in the doctrine of environmental law, which today causes legal uncertainty.