Migration as Successful Adaptation? Examining research, policy, and media evidence

Human migration is an age-old strategy to manage risk. It’s nature, quantum, and outcomes are changing under climate change and there is conflicting evidence on whether migration can be successful adpatation or not. Drawing on a review of policies and media, and supplemented by an ongoing evidence map of migration-as-adaptation, this paper discusses key research areas and knowledge gaps. The work goes beyond literature reviews on the migration-adaptation interface to focus on other (non-academic) spaces where these narratives are growing and gain legitimacy from (e.g. policy documents, popular media). The work synthesises key discourses in literature, policy, and media, to articulate the need for narrative change around climate migration that (1) recognises the vulnerability and agency of climate migrants, (2) avoids falling into the trap of environmental determinism when identifying migration drivers, and (3) identifies entry points for expanding what we understand by ‘successful’ adpatation in an increasingly mobile world.