Environmental migrant

Environmental migrants are people who are forced to leave their home of residency due to sudden or long-term changes to their local or regional environment.

These changes compromise their well-being or livelihood, and include increased drought, desertification, sea level rise, and disruption of seasonal weather patterns (such as monsoons[1]).

[3] The International Organization for Migration (IOM) proposes the following definition for environmental migrants:"Environmental migrants are persons or groups of persons who, for compelling reasons of sudden or progressive changes in the environment that adversely affect their lives or living conditions, are obliged to leave their habitual homes, or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, and who move either within their country or abroad.

[16] By 1989, Mustafa Tolba, Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme, proposed that the number of environmental refugees could exceed 50 million people if the world did not begin to work towards sustainable development.

[25] Due to their vulnerability to climate change, SIDS have become increasingly uninhabitable, which has caused many environmental migrants to flee their countries in search of a safer environment.

[30] SIDS have also been active participants in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for making progress towards preventing migration issues and pushing for stronger policies.

[29] Political figures such as Mia Mottley emphasize the need for a major increase in investment and global support to address the limitations of SIDS and environmental migrants.

10490 aims to amend the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940 to expand the criteria for refugee status beyond the traditional categories of persecution, religion, and politics to include climate change.