An Option to Avoid the Sudden Mass Influx of Migrants Resulting From Worldwide Environmental Threats

Abstract

This study attempts to explore useful and practical measures to mitigate the anticipated impacts on host communities caused by the mass influx of migrants resulting from worldwide environmental threats. Concern for worldwide environmental threats such as climate change, deforestation, and sea -level are on the rise, meaning that many people from all over the world may become environmentally displaced persons (EDPs). Unless we take some corrective measures, the world could face grave difficulties resulting from massive displacement of EDPs in the near future. Human migrations generally occur for a variety of reasons and under different circumstances, and they potentially have strong effects on host communities. When massive numbers of migrants flow into one country all at once, worries about severe conflicts between migrants and residents in the host community emerge. Against those concerns, we propose an option that avoids the sudden mass influx of migrants resulting from environmental threats and; resettling them instead as economic migrants in a manageable fashion. This option seems preferable both for migrants and for the host community, rather than tackling a mass migration that would occur after the slow-onset effect of environmental threats.