ABSTRACT
The scale of migration is increasing, and while great uncertainty exists in identifying exact numbers, the estimated number of international migrants is already surpassing 2050 projections in the order of 2.6%, or 230 million. As people migrate, they face a number of challenges including exposure to disease and other health threats, violence and assualt, trafficking and unlawful detention. However, of the protections avail-able to migrants, the implementation and realization of these protections and how they impact the individual experiences of migrants and their loss of human rights and dignity rights across the migration cycle, are lacking. In acknowledgement of this, McClain et al. developed a legal and policy framework for Migration with Dignity, which identified six fundamental elements central to the migration experience that can supplement and support the implementation of migrant protections. The framework was built upon the foundational policy of former President of Kiribati, Anote Tong, who understood the climate change was impacting the lives and livelihoods of his people and that in the face of diminishing land area and opportunities, that the Kiribati should have the opportunity to determine when and how they migrate, and that in doing so that they are able to live a life that is equal to or better than the one they left behind. The Migration with Dignity framework offers an opportunity to provide policy and legal options to governments, policy makers, and NGO’s for how to improve to consider the dignity of migrants while they move, and improve the transition of migrants into new set-tings, while also fostering opportunities for improved livelihoods. However, in order to provide these opportunities, the framework would benefit from additional application of the fundamental elements across different contexts and in different settings. With this in mind, this article provides the necessary methodology for considering the social and legal dimensions of the framework, it also provides examples for how to apply the framework across multiple contexts. © Fuji Technology Press Ltd.
ABSTRACT
This special issue presents the findings of an international collaborative research project conducted between 2019 and 2021. This study is a follow-up of a previous study conducted between 2016 and 2019. In both studies, we examined the livelihoods of future climate migrants, who may relocate from Pacific atoll countries to developed countries. The Maldives was also included in this study, as it developed a unique strategy to cope with anticipated sea-level rise. They have developed a new city on reclaimed land and el-evated it, intending to move the majority of its population there. In our first research project, we learned of the challenges faced by Pacific Islanders when transitioning to their new lives in a foreign country. This included inter alia unemployment or lack of opportunities for upward mobility, limited access to healthcare and legal services, and discrimination. We thus developed a formal policy and legal framework for the concept of “Migration with Dignity,” built upon the phrase first coined by then-Kiribati President Anote Tong. Our framework represents the opportunity for migrants to live a life equal to or better than the one they left behind. We then applied our concept of the Migration with Dignity framework to the challenges faced by climate migrants in the real world. The global outbreak of COVID-19 occurred during the implementation of our new research project. This made field research almost impossible in both atoll and developed countries and led us to modify our survey methods to include tele-interviews and remote surveys through the Internet. The pandemic also revealed the exacerbated vulnerabilities of the people who mi-grated to developed countries, such as discrimination, poor or no translation of medical documents, and challenging healthcare processes. We decided to address these issues within the framework of our research. We leave it to the readers of this special issue to decide how far we were able to maintain the quality of our research despite the difficulties we faced due to the sudden pandemic. As we felt at the end of our last collaboration, we now know what we need to do in our next endeavor. © Fuji Technology Press Ltd.