By: Gursimran Padda
Free Movement Agreements (FMAs) are agreements in which groups of countries come together in order to create a common market and more closely integrate their economies. Within an FMA, the movement of goods, services, and most importantly people, becomes much easier.
Specifically speaking for the movement of people, this is done through visa free travel for citizens of member countries within the agreement. This is a highly important point as under current refugee law, climate change refugees and environmentally displaced persons are not recognized as refugees. According to the activist group “Climate Refugees” the problem lies in how refugee law only protects those fleeing direct persecution by an agent (such as a terror group or government), the environment and climate change displacement isn’t included. Due to such stipulations they are not granted refugee rights and their asylum cases are not likely to go through, as stated by Ama Francis in “Climate-Induced Migration & Free Movement Agreements” (Francis FMA, 124-126). Through FMAs, those that are displaced through climate change or environmentally related reasons, don’t have to prove their case, which not only makes it easier for them to escape their situation and flee, but also it removes the stigma of being known as a climate refugee, a term disliked by many in the South Pacific, as stated by an article from United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Flooding the village of Eita in Kiribati. Jonas Gratzer/LightRocket via Getty Images
FMAs also respond to the multi-causal nature of climate change and environmental displacement, and the complexities of migration as a result of it. Ama Francis states in “Free Movement Agreements & Climate Induced Migration: A Caribbean Case Study”, that climate change encompasses a broad range of causes for displacement, such as flooding and droughts mentioned in prior sections, and those that escape it do so either voluntarily or are forced to, and from here they are either temporary or long term migrants (Francis Caribbean, 20-21). Moreover migration, including climate change based displacement, primarily happens at the regional level (Francis Caribbean, 21-22). FMAs don’t just allow those seeking refuge to bypass refugee laws, but it tackles what is a regional problem by allowing migrants access to jobs and allowing them to escape within their region visa free without having to prove a case or carry any burden. Through regional movement, migrants also have access to countries closer in culture to their own, which could lessen (Francis, 23) the adverse impact of displacement to a new country.
Economic growth is also perpetuated by FMAs, at both the national and local levels, which could be further reinvested into resilience and sustainability programs. One of the most notable FMAs is the EU’s Schengen Area, which has been instrumental in economic growth and easing trade between member countries, as found by a study conducted by the European Parliamentary Research Service. Applying a similar agreement within the South Pacific can increase trade between member countries which could increase capital. Likewise, FMAs also allow citizens access to jobs in different countries which in return can increase remittance flows at the local level, allowing money to enter local communities which can be used to combat climate change related issues there. Additionally, FMAs can also allow workers who do work in another country within the agreement to benefit from that job’s social security benefits, as done so by CARICOM in the Caribbean through the transferring and integration of social security rights and benefits (Francis FMA, 127).
FMAs also have an advantage in that due to a variety of reasons a global framework on the rights of climate refugees is unlikely to occur, as stated by an article from Amy Lieberman of DevEx. This is primarily due to the complexities related to climate change based migration mentioned above and the complexities of creating a global framework that most countries are willing to agree on. Despite this, FMAs tackle the problem in a more realistic way as neighboring countries not only have greater degrees of trust with each other and mutual reliance (Francis Caribbean, 25) , but the pool of countries needed for an FMA to go through are much smaller than a global framework. Though the likelihood is unlikely, new changes are being made such as the creation of the Global Compact which seeks to expand the rights of migrants, especially those not already protected under the strict refugee conventions of international law.
Lieberman , Amy. “A ‘Super Framework’ for Climate Migration Isn’t on the Way .” DevEx, 29 Oct. 2019, https://www.devex.com/news/a-super-framework-for-climate-migration-isn-t-on-the-way-95903.
Francis, Ama. “Climate-Induced Migration & Free Movement Agreements.” Journal of International Affairs, vol. 73, no. 1, 2019, pp. 123–34, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26872782.
Francis, Ama. “Free Movement Agreements & Climate Induced Migration: A Caribbean Case Study.” Sabin Center for Climate Change, Columbia Law School, Sept. 2019. http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/files/2019/09/FMAs-Climate-Induced-Migration-AFrancis.pdf
“The Economic Impact of Suspending Schengen.” European Parliamentary Research Service, European Union Parliament, Mar, 2016, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2016/579074/EPRS_ATA(2016)579074_EN.pdf
“The Problem.” Climate Refugees, https://www.climate-refugees.org/why#:~:text=The%201951%20Refugee%20Convention%20offers,social%20group%20or%20political%20opinion.“Pacific Islanders Reject ‘Climate Refugee’ Status, Want to ‘Migrate with Dignity’, Sids Conference Hears – World.” ReliefWeb, OCHA, 15 Sept. 2014, https://reliefweb.int/report/world/pacific-islanders-reject-climate-refugee-status-want-migrate-dignity-sids-conference.