The poor pay the price: New research insights on human mobility, climate change and disasters

This brief aims to present initial findings from six countries that yield policy implications relevant to the discussions in the the 2015 Paris Climate Change discussions. The research confirms that some forms of mobility enable people to adapt and should be facilitated, while displacement and planned relocation pose important policy and protection challenges, especially for the poor.

The publication gives the following recommendations:

• integrating the potential of migration, particularly seasonal migration, in adaptation plans;
• increasing disaster risk reduction and resilience to prevent and mitigate displacement;
• carefully plan relocation as a last resort and one of several options;
• learning from good practices, such as by including the potential of migrants’ contributions in adapting to land degradation and other forms of environmental change.

Environment Migration Portal, Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Policy Brief Series, Issue 9, Vol. 1, December 2015. This document is part of the "Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Policy Brief Series" of the International Organization for Migration.