Author(s)

Beiyuan Zhang

Corresponding Author

Beiyuan Zhang

Abstract

With climate change, the world is heating up. Floods, erosion, tsunamis, hurricanes, and a series of other natural disasters caused by environmental issues such as sea-level rise have already had multiple detrimental impacts on the Earth and humanity, and the Arctic region will also not be spared. The impact of climate change is pervasive – it has not only changed the growth environment of vegetation and the predatory behavior of animals in the Arctic area but also already had an irreversible change on human lifestyle, making a variety of indigenous communities face the risk of displacement. The linkage effect of this impact is constantly disintegrating the entire Arctic ecosystem. Besides, without international recognition and government support, the groups who are forced to move are struggling with the implementation of the migration and it is urgent to improve the autonomy and human rights protection of immigrants in the Arctic. This thesis illustrates the environmental refugee identity crisis through the history and current status of migration in the Arctic and proposes countermeasures to address the issue of climate migrants from multiple perspectives of strengthening international cooperation, striving for both mitigation and active adaptation, establishing coping policies and governance mechanisms as well as management institutions in the international community.

Keywords

Migration, climate change, human rights, autonomy, indigenous community, environmental refugee, Arctic