Climate change and the process of migration to Europe

Abstract

The refugee crisis which began in 2015 showed that Europe and the EU are not prepared for the challenges of the future. Several studies are also coming to the conclusion that climate change will have a huge impact on movements of migration from Africa to Europe. By the year 2050, approximately 86 million people will be forced to flee from their country of origin as a consequence of climate change, mainly in Sub-Saharan and East Africa. Significant migration movements are expected to be the result. This paper aims to anticipate possible refugee inflows from Africa and attempts to outline a set of recommendations as to how mass migration to Europe could be avoided. For this purpose, the effects of climate change, demographic development, politics, and economics are taken into consideration with a case study on Sub-Saharan Africa. The article shows that displacement will not only affect Africa but also Europe, absent effective policy changes. However, early crisis prevention could stop mass migration to Europe. Nevertheless, climate change can only be tackled to a certain extent, and decision makers have to find ways on how to deal with this issue. Especially, urbanization programs in rural, but livable, regions could be a solution. Overall, European refugee policy has to change significantly, as the ongoing refugee crisis has the potential to disrupt European integration.