The impact of environmental change on migration and the way migration can act as a response to environmental hazards are attracting an increasing attention from both policy-makers and researchers worldwide in the context of climate change. Yet, knowledge in this field remains limited and fragmented. This paper will provide an overview of the environmental change migration nexus and investigate the key issues at stake. The concepts and methods most adequate to address these relationships will also be questioned.

Etienne Piguet (Phd. /University of Lausanne/1998) is Professor at the Institute of geography of the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland). He chairs the Population geography commission of the International Geographical Union (IGU) and is vice-president of the Swiss federal commission for migration (CFM/EKM). E. Piguet is specialized in migration studies with a focus on the migration/climate change nexus. He has written extensively on issues of migration flows, refugees, labour market integration of migrants, discrimination, statelessness, etc.  He was Review editor for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 5th assessment report (IPCC 2014) and has published numerous books and papers on the topic in scientific journals including the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Population Space and Place, Nature (Climate change), Population and Development Review, Journal of Refugee Studies, etc. In Dec. 2019, he published a new book in French on asylum issues (Asile et réfugiés – Repenser la protection – Presses polytechniques romandes). Full list of publications here.

Recommended Readings: 

• Piguet, E., 2020. Environment and Migration. In: Kobayashi, A. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2nd edition. vol. 4, Elsevier, pp. 163–168. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10258-6

• Piguet, E. (2019). Climatic Statelessness: Risk Assessment and Policy Options. Population and Development Review, 45, 4, 865-883.

• Piguet, E., Kaenzig, R., Guélat, J., & SpringerLink (Online service). (2018). The uneven geography of research on "environmental migration". (Population and environment.)

• Etienne Piguet (2013): From “Primitive Migration” to “Climate Refugees”: The Curious Fate of the NaturalEnvironment in Migration Studies, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 103:1, 148-162

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