Illuminate a Future-Proof System: Accessible Education for Environmental Migrants

• In Event: Poster Session Group 2
  In Poster Session: Illuminate a Future-Proof System: Accessible Education for Environmental Migrants

Proposal

Objectives:

This poster addresses the issues faced by environmental migrants, that are not protected by international law, in accessing education. Environmental migrants, such as climate migrants, refer to the population forced to be displaced or seek refugee due to environmental induced disasters. The pilot study tackles the following questions:

1. What kind of challenges do environmental migrant students face?

2. What are procedural barriers for global environmental migrants in accessing education?

3. What international efforts and resources should be put in to effectively improve education accessibility?

4.When is the best time for international intervention during the move of environmental migrants?

In this study, we examine the questions via literature review and parallel comparison to other forms of migration, as well as analysis of case studies. The conclusions we drew from this study identify major obstacles limiting effective access to education faced by environmental migrant students compared to other migrant groups. The analysis sheds light to potential effective measures to lower such barriers and make education more accessible to environmental migrants. Therefore, the poster illuminates potential interventions that can be introduced at appropriate time for policymakers.

Relevance and Contribution:

According to the UNICEF, environmental migrants are quickly growing to be a key challenge of migration due to the impact of climate change. There were over 140 million people forced to move in just three regions according to a 2018 report from the World Bank. Moreover, there is a projected population of 25 million to 1 billion environmental migrants by 2050 (International Organisation for Migration, 2017). A crucial component to secure the children’s rights throughout the course of forced migration due to climate change is education. However, students of climate migrants are at risk of inaccessibility in education. In a recent UNHCR report, there were 3.7 million refugee children out of school, with 76% of all secondary school-aged refugees not enrolled in education (Nielson, 2019). According to Migration Data Portal, the population of internally displaced populations due to natural disasters and climate change is rising at a drastic rate. In 2020, 30.7 million new cases of internally displacements were recorded worldwide; among which, over 98% were directly resulted from weather-related disasters, such as storms and floods (Migration Data Portal, 2021).

It is known that barriers to education preventing climate migrant children to enter proper education exist in all parameters, including by not limiting to systemic, social, legal, and economic barriers. However, as climate has only been very recently recognized by the UNESCO that could be a main reason for displacement within a few decades, there is very limited studies on how education accessibility could be improved for climate migrant children. The emerging opportunities to seriously investigate into these issues were made possible by the UNICEF’s six-point Agenda for Action for Refugee and Migrant Children, in which aims to support children on the move, as well as the UNESCO’s recognition of climate change as a main impact factor to migration.

Author

• Sissel Tan, University of Pennsylvania