FORCED ENVIRONMENTAL DISPLACEMENT
Nuria del Viso
A phenomenon referring to people or groups of persons who are obliged to abandon their habitat to escape from armed conflict, situations of generalised violence, violations of human rights, catastrophes -whether of a geophysical or climatic nature- or the effects caused by extractivist projects, including environmental degradation (OIM, 2019).
Forced displacement generally involves, to a greater or lesser extent, coercion. A dividing line has traditionally been drawn between forced displacement and migration, the latter assumed to be voluntary. However, it is recognised today that the decision to migrate is rarely entirely free, and thus the dividing line is more porous than formerly believed. In fact, we may well speak of a gradient of cases from completely forced and completely voluntary.
Forced displacement results from three major types of causes, against a backdrop of ecological and social degradation: extreme geophysical or climatic events, extractivism, and political violence and armed conflict. Aside from geophysical phenomena -earthquakes and volcanic eruptions- all these causes are of anthropogenic origin and mirror an excessive and wasteful lifestyle that has saturated the planet’s sinks with greenhouse gases.
Firstly, extreme climatic events include: i) those that occur suddenly –storms, hurricanes or floods– and, together with super-hot fires, usually have a direct and immediate impact on human mobility due to imminent danger or the loss of means of subsistence and infrastructures; and ii) slow-moving phenomena –drought, desertification and rising sea level or salinity– which interact with earlier vulnerabilities and socioeconomic factors -such as food insecurity, the lack of employment opportunities, limited access to social protection and the exhaustion of natural resources- and influence the decision to move to another place.
Secondly, among the causes of forced displacement is extractivism, which refers to plundering energy resources, industrial farming and the extraction of other natural goods for international supply chains, as well as the construction of infrastructures for “progress” —such as dams and highways– that fracture our ecosystems. Extractive projects involve profound changes in land use and often entail deforestation, the disappearance of fertile land and environmental contamination; in all cases they lead to severe deterioration of ecosystems and the livelihoods of the communities directly dependent on them. This situation often leads to thousands of socioecological conflicts around the world.
Thirdly, forced displacement is produced because of armed conflicts, political persecution and other episodes of violence. Traditionally, these were the main causes of forced displacement. This is why, after the Second World War, it was the only category considered by the international community for granting legal protection under refugee status. However, with the aggravation of the ecosocial crisis in recent decades, political violence has been overtaken by the other two cause types in responsibility for the dislocation and forced exodus of millions of people.
These three types are not separate compartments but interact with each other. Besides, the motivations for leaving one’s home ground are not only environmental or political, but can also be economic, social, and cultural to different degrees.
Forced displacement may occur within the boundaries of one’s home State, which is called internal displacement, or across international borders, which opens the path in cases of political violence to seeking asylum and the granting of refugee status. No other legal figure is currently recognised for the remainder of cases, which fall under the broad umbrella category of “migrant” -the position adopted by the IOM-, even though in many cases mobility is all but voluntary. People labelled as “economic migrants” are in fact forced into displacement by environmental causes -including extractivism- or climatic causes, but frequently the true/root origin remains unidentified. At any event, in common language we hear expressions such as “environmental refugee”, “climate-displaced person” or “climatic migrant”, which, to date, are not legally recognised (Borràs, 2006; Celis, 2015; Felipe, 2022; Ibarra, 2021)).
From a legal viewpoint, the current situation is as follows (CEAR Euskadi, 2014):
The Geneva Convention of 1951 considers refugees to be those holding a grounded fear of suffering persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, belonging to a given social group, or political opinions. Recent interpretations have allowed the inclusion of persecution for reasons of sexual orientation and/or gender identity as grounds for asylum (UNHCR, 2012). The AUO Convention and the Cartagena Declaration subsequently extended the reasons for considering a person as refugee, taking into account those fleeing from an external aggression, occupation, foreign domination, events and circumstances that severely disrupt the public order, mass violation of human rights, generalised violence and internal conflicts.
The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement of 2009 also include those fleeing from natural or human-instigated catastrophes, apartheid policies, ethnic cleansing, policies of racial discrimination, large-scale development projects (unless justified by a superior or primordial public interest), disasters and collective punishments.
The Kampala Convention further adds those fleeing from forced evacuation in cases of natural or human-instigated disasters and obliges party States (Art. 3) to monitor the responsibility of the relevant non-State actors, including multinational and private companies providing security or military services, regarding acts of arbitrary displacement or complicity therein.
Forced displacement is recognised today as a major trend. As one of the phenomena that typify the impact of ecosocial crisis, its acceleration is a sure sign that this crisis is experiencing rapid aggravation. To give an idea of how forced displacement is on the rise, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees recorded in 2002 a total of 20 million forcibly displaced persons; two decades on, this figure had reached 123 million persons (UNHCR, 2025), that is, a five-fold increase in just 20 years. The populations of impoverished and peripheral countries are the first to suffer the effects. Regarding internal displacement, the International Displacement Monitoring Centre provides data on forced displacement broken down into political violence and conflicts; and extreme climatic and geophysical events (IDMC, 2025).
Forced displacement does not affect all people equally. Forced mobility has a different impact on people depending on their social class: the fewer the resources of any kind, the greater the impact from causes for forced mobility and the sooner such impacts are felt; on their age: a high percentage of displaced persons are minors and elders; on their gender: whether for different needs, impacts on health, social norms, or gender roles potentially exposing women to greater risk in the event of displacement -additionally, relations, rules and expectations differently affecting the mobility decisions taken by men and women, as well as their experience of displacement-; and, of course, on their racialisation, which is currently a determinant factor in the sealed border policies about how attempting to enter the Global North territories for people from the Global South is enacted.
Forced displacement implies a severe destructuring impact on communities. Forced mobility destroys life networks, relations, modes of production, cultural practices, and fuels rootlessness. On the one hand, population loss in the areas issuing displaced people ruptures the social fabric in the communities of origin; likewise, communities suffer tensions when people, despite wanting or having to move away, cannot do so for lack of economic resources or the networks and contacts that would make it possible; the result is known as “trapped populations” or “forced immobility”. On the other hand, at the receiving locations the mobility issue and the arrival of persons from impoverished countries in the Global South are increasingly perceived as a problem, whatever the cause, and exclusive policies are applied while xenophobic and racist attitudes are on the rise.
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