Ä¢¹½´«Ã½

This Policy Brief (PB) seeks to explore the extent to which the two processes (migration and climate change) are connected.). This PB focuses on induced or voluntary climate change migration and focuses on international migration mostly, but not entirely, from Pacific Island locations to countries on the Pacific Rim. This PB is the third in a series of four exploring climate change and (im)mobility in Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs). 

The PB starts by examining the processes likely to ‘drive’ migration, acknowledging that climate change (albeit in many manifestations) is only one of numerous possible influences on people’s migration decisions. The PB briefly but critically reviews the concepts of the ‘climate change migrant’ and the ‘climate change refugee’, acknowledging the discursive nature of their construction and the negative implications of this. The PB then outlines the existing distribution of Pasifika people outside their cultural homelands, identifying large diaspora populations (in relation to the small domestic populations of most of the countries of origin) in three main locations, namely Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and the United States. Next, the PB discusses some of the future issues relating to possible climate change influenced international migration from PICTs. Finally, the PB reflects on some of the unresolved issues relating to climate change mobility in Oceania.