This article, written by Kerilyn Schewel, inter alia highlights the following key elements:

• In the case of sudden-onset events, there is a more direct link between extreme weather and the displacement that follows. Yet even in these cases, where, how, and whether people move is shaped by households’ resources and networks as well as by government preparations and humanitarian-led interventions. In the context of slow-onset climate impacts, the link between environmental factors and migration is more indirect and nonlinear. Research in climate-stressed areas finds that many people do not want to migrate, even if their livelihoods are significantly at risk, and those who do move rarely cite environmental factors as the primary motivations for leaving. 
   
• A core challenge to defining climate migration is the reality that climate impacts almost always intersect with other drivers of migration and immobility. This means climate-related migration can take many forms: labor migration, asylum seeking, family reunification, student migration, or even human trafficking. These different forms of climate-related movement require very different policy responses.
   
• Some of the most adverse consequences of climate change may come in the form of reduced mobility and what some researchers call “trapped populations." Migration requires significant resources, including money, networks, and know-how. The most vulnerable groups—those with low levels of income and education, the elderly, or those with disabilities—are more likely to be left exposed to the continued impacts of climate change. Many people do not see themselves as trapped and do not want to migrate. Even when governments and organizations explicitly design policies to relocate people away from threatened areas.
   
• Addressing the opportunities and challenges of mixed migration and mixed immobility in an era of climate change will demand a multifaceted approach. At the national level, it will require mainstreaming internal migration into climate adaptation efforts alongside those to support in-situ adaptation and sustainable urbanization. At the international level, it will require an increase in humanitarian assistance and an expansion in humanitarian pathways and legal statuses to support those affected by natural disasters.

For more information, please read the article "Who counts as a climate migrant?" on the MPI website.

This article is part of a special series of articles that address how a changing climate is affecting international and internal migration now and what its effects might be in the future. Articles from leading scholars examine the connection between climate change and migration through historical, scientific, and legal overviews, on a global scale and in individual countries. The special issue is accompanied by a podcast, Changing Climate, Changing Migration.