Public Engagement
Duke University researchers collaborate with international practitioners and experts to shape ongoing discussions and guide the inquiries researchers pose regarding climate-related migration. We want to conduct fact-based outreach to engage broad audiences and new actors in discussions on climate-related migration.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE CAPABILITY TO STAY
As part of an award from the Social Science Research Council, Kerilyn Schewel organized two workshops and a virtual speaker series focusing on advancing sustainable rural development in a way that enhances a person’s capability to stay and flourish in rural places. The second workshop was held on October 23, 2023.
Ways & Means Podcast - Duke Sanford School
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Rural Transformations Series
This series features conversations with leading thinkers learning from the forefront of these efforts. Together, they will help us reimagine the possibilities and future of rural transformation.
Climate Change: America and the World - Migration and Forced Movement
This episode begins to uncover the deep-rooted, structural problems that need to be overcome to offer a robust solution to climate change migration, as well as the potential inadequacies of development aid to address climate change related issues in the developing world.
Policy 360 Podcast - Duke Sanford School
Climate change is forcing many people to move due to environmental stressors like heat, hurricane, and drought. Duke Sanford School of Public Policy Dean Judith Kelley speaks with Kerilyn Schewel and Sarah Bermeo of the Duke Center for International Development about emerging climate migration patterns and how research might better inform policy.
PODCASTS
The following is a selection of podcasts related to climate and migration.
Climate-Related Migration and Adaptation Funding
In this episode of Building the Future, guest host Noam Unger is joined by Sarah Bermeo and Kerilyn Schewel, co-directors of the Duke Program on Climate, Resilience and Mobility, as they draw on their research in Central America and Ethiopia to discuss the effect of climate on migration, forecast models, adaptation funding, and aid allocation.
What Exactly Is Climate Migration?
Migration is complex, and rarely is there only one single factor that prompts people to leave their homes. That is especially true when climate change is involved, since its impacts on internal and international migration are often indirect and hard to trace. So when we talk about climate migration, what exactly do we mean? And why is the distinction important?
Ways & Means Podcast - Duke Sanford School
In this episode of Ways & Means: the hidden role that climate plays in the story of migration. How a changing climate is driving thousands of people to enter the U.S. each year. And how relatively small, inexpensive changes on the ground could make a difference with a daunting geopolitical problem.
Rural Transformations Series
This series features conversations with leading thinkers learning from the forefront of these efforts. Together, they will help us reimagine the possibilities and future of rural transformation.
Climate Change: America and the World - Migration and Forced Movement
This episode begins to uncover the deep-rooted, structural problems that need to be overcome to offer a robust solution to climate change migration, as well as the potential inadequacies of development aid to address climate change related issues in the developing world.
NEWS & MEDIA
The following is a selection of news and media related to climate and migration.
Climate Change, Migration, and Foreign Aid in Central America
Professor Sarah Bermeo uses subnational data on both migration and agricultural stress for Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador from 2012-2019 to examine the impact of droughts related to climate change on migration decisions.
CBC Radio's The Current
Young people from Mayan communities in Guatemala often migrate north to the U.S., fleeing poverty and a lack of opportunity. But a UN-supported boarding school outside Puerto Barrios is offering training and education in the hopes of giving them a chance to stay.
BBC Newsnight
Dr. Sarah Bermeo gives her insights on the human cost of climate change, and where it would no longer be safe to live.
Student Describes her Ph.D. Research on Climate-Induced Migration and Conflict
Gabriela Nagle Alverio is a J.D. - Ph.D. student in the University Program in Environmental Policy (UPEP). Her research interests broadly include the impacts of climate change on human rights and human security and the policy solutions therein. Her dissertation research is on climate-induced migration and conflict.
Political Implications of Climate Change in Latin America
This seminar comes back closer to home to examine how climate change is affecting the political landscape in Central and South America featuring a discussion among Dr. Christine Folch, Gabriela Nagle Alverio, and Dr. Sarah Bermeo.
BLOG POSTS
The following is a selection of blog posts and op-eds related to climate and migration.
Who Counts as a Climate Migrant?
As climate change becomes more extreme, the consequences will continue unfolding. Researchers and analysts have repeatedly tried to quantify how many people will be uprooted by climate change, with estimates ranging from the hundreds of millions to well more than 1 billion. In the process, they have created a new category of migrants sometimes referred to as environmental migrants, climate refugees, and increasingly, climate migrants. The use of these terms, particularly “climate refugee,” has prompted contentious debates among academics, activists, and others.
How Climate Change Catalyzes More Migration in Central America
Annual migrant apprehensions at the U.S. southwestern border have surpassed 2 million, breaking previous fiscal year records. The flows (which include large numbers of repeat crossers) have grown increasingly multinational in recent years, including Haitians trying to escape their country’s violence and poverty, along with Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans fleeing a combination of economic misery and political repression.
Rural Poverty, Climate Change, and Family Migration from Guatemala
Annual apprehensions of people from Guatemala arriving in family units at the U.S. southern border grew exponentially between 2012 and 2019—from just 340 to a whopping 185,134 (Figure 1). As a proportion of total Guatemalan apprehensions, those apprehended as family units grew from less than 5 percent to 70 percent in the same period. This increase happened before the pandemic, before the 2020 hurricanes that devastated parts of Central America, and before President Biden was elected. The underlying conditions driving migration predate these events and still exist today and—without an adequate policy response—seem set to continue.
Climate Migration and Climate Finance: Lessons from Central America
Thousands of people from Central America traveled through Mexico bound for the United States while world leaders met at COP26. Forced migration from Central America is driven by violence, corruption, lack of opportunity, and—increasingly—climate change. The concurrence of this migration event with COP26 underlines the growing reality that climate change will drive migration.
How to Actually Tackle the Root Causes of Central American Migration
People from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras continue to arrive in large numbers at the U.S. southern border. The Biden administration, like others before it, has declared its intent to decrease this form of migration. The administration is pursuing a two-pronged strategy, sending a message that “the border is not open” while increasing foreign aid to address root causes of migration.
