Changing Climate, Changing Migration

Hosted by Migration Policy Institute

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May 2026

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How are climate change and environmental degradation affecting human migration across borders and within countries? We explore with top experts in this Migration Policy Institute podcast.

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52 recent

May 26, 2026Episode 5234 min

Climate Change Is Making People Sick. Can Migration Help?

Climate change can be devastating for individuals’ health and safety. Climate-linked natural disasters can cause physical injuries and damage health-care systems, while slow-onset changes such sea-level rise can lead to the spread of disease and make it harder for people to obtain care. In that context, leaving a climate-vulnerable place can potentially lead to better health outcomes—but only under the right circumstances. In this episode, we speak with Ilse Ruyssen, an economist at Ghent University and the UN University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies, who leads the CliMigHealth research network. Subscribe to Changing Climate, Changing Migration on Apple, Spotify or YouTube. Chapters 01:19 Health Vulnerability among Climate Migrants 05:13 Groups at Highest Risk 08:36 When Migration Protects Health 11:51 How Climate Change Directly Harms Health 17:02 Strain on Health-Care Systems 22:18 Countering the "Migrants as Health Risk" Narrative 25:48 Mental Health and Climate Displacement 27:48 What to Do?

April 23, 2026Episode 5131 min

Priced Out: Climate Change, Home Insurance, and the People Stuck in the Middle

Climate change is making home insurance more expensive and less available, as the multibillion-dollar losses caused by hurricanes, wildfires, and other disasters increase in scale. Rising insurance premiums can push some people to relocate or force others to either pay more money to remain in their home or go without insurance and risk catastrophe if disaster strikes. Residents, insurance companies, and policymakers in high-income countries are beginning to reckon with these issues and are working to find a way to adequately offset risk without charging exorbitant prices. This episode features Talley Burley, who analyzes climate risk and insurance at the Environmental Defense Fund. Subscribe to Changing Climate, Changing Migration on Apple, Spotify or YouTube. Chapters 02:17 How Climate Change Is Raising Insurance Costs 06:04 Hazards Driving Insurability Concerns 07:38 Insurance Costs as a Driver of Migration 09:49 Climate Entrapment and Equity Issues 15:13 Policy Solutions: Adaptation, Building Codes and Wraparound Services 18:52 The National Flood Insurance Program: Origins and Trade-offs 26:00 Hurricane Sandy: Lessons in Recovery and Relocation

April 9, 2026Episode 5030 min

First Displacement, then Disasters: How Refugees Contend with Climate Change

Refugees are often some of the people most vulnerable to climate change. After fleeing armed conflict or persecution, many refugees end up in camps located in rural areas, with few resources and little support. That can leave them vulnerable to floods, storms, extreme heat, or other impacts of climate change. This episode focuses on these impacts, with insights from Ayoo Irene Hellen, a South Sudanese refugee in Uganda and climate advocate. She discusses her own experiences, those of her community, and the value of including refugee voices in planning. Want to dive deeper? Listen to an earlier episode speaking with the UN refugee agency’s special advisor on climate action: https://mpichangingclimatechangingmigration.podbean.com/e/no-climate-refugees-but-still-a-role-for-the-un-refugee-agency/ All of MPI’s work on climate migration is here: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/topics/climate-change 00:00 Intro 02:45 Climate impacts on refugee settlements in Uganda 09:32 Legal and socioeconomic barriers to climate adaptation 16:52 Exclusion of refugees from climate policy processes 19:21 Refugee-led community resilience strategies 23:11 Climate challenges upon return: The case of South Sudan 27:24 Closing thoughts: co-creation and refugee inclusion

February 23, 2026Episode 4924 min

Climate Displacement from Indigenous Lands

Many Indigenous people have a deep connection to their ancestral homelands that dates back centuries. What happens when climate change and other factors force them to move away from those lands? This episode discusses issues affecting Indigenous people, especially in the Americas. Our guest is environmental scientist Jessica Hernandez, a climate justice and Indigenous advocate. She discusses the factors compelling migration for Indigenous communities, their experiences after migration and the dearth of Indigenous voices in policy discussions over climate change and migration.

January 26, 2026Episode 4839 min

Is Climate-Vulnerable Africa Prepared for Increased Displacement?

Africa may be the most climate-vulnerable region of the world, with drought, extreme heat and storms, and other impacts affecting millions across the continent. These environmental events have forced people from their homes and in some cases even contributed to conflict between different groups. By far, most climate-affected individuals who migrate stay either within their own country or go elsewhere on the continent, rather than migrating beyond Africa. How prepared is the continent for a future of increased displacement? Governments are making some strides to accommodate displaced people—although there is often a gap between official rhetoric and the realities on the ground. This episode discusses climate-linked migration issues across Africa with Aimée-Noël Mbiyozo, a senior research consultant at the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies.

December 16, 2025Episode 4730 min

Trapped by Climate Change: The Economics of Staying or Leaving

It is not guaranteed that someone harmed by a natural disaster or other environmental change will leave their home. A complicated web of factors affects whether climate-vulnerable individuals want to—or even can—move. One of these factors is financial: How much money or other resources someone has at their disposal. In this episode, we speak with Kelsea Best of The Ohio State University about climate (im)mobility and the economic and other factors that help shape futures amid changing climates. We also discuss the notion of “climate gentrification,” which occurs when wealthier people move into traditionally lower-income neighborhoods that are better shielded from natural disasters and other environmental harms.

November 10, 2025Episode 4627 min

The Young Lives Uprooted by Climate Change

Children are especially vulnerable to displacement linked to climate change. Each year, millions of young people are displaced by weather-related disasters, as schools and other services break down and adults send children away to find safety. Forced from their homes, children often face new challenges, including being unable to access education or medical care, and even heightened risk of violence and other dangers. Despite the unique challenges that children face in displacement, there are relatively few international laws or systems particularly designed to assist those forced to move because of environmental factors. We speak with UNICEF’s Laura Healy about this reality and the opportunities to better protect children in a warming world.

October 29, 2025Episode 4527 min

Will Climate Change Push Some People into Statelessness?

Within the next few decades, rising sea levels could wipe some small Pacific Island nations off the face of the earth. The prospect that the physical territory of countries such as Kiribati and Tuvalu is no longer habitable raises the prospect that their nationals could lose their citizenship, becoming stateless. It also poses profound questions for international law and the obligations of other countries. How likely is this possible outcome, and what can countries do to protect their sovereignty and their citizens? Join our discussion with Mark Nevitt, an international law scholar at the Emory University School of Law.

August 27, 2025Episode 4423 min

Connecting the Dots: How Climate Detectives Link Human-Caused Environmental Change to Migration

It is no easy task to say with certainty that a particular storm, drought, or other extreme weather event causes human displacement, or that those individual events are due to human-caused climate change. Hurricanes, wildfires, mudslides, monsoons, and other sudden-onset events, as well as slow-onset ones such as drought, extreme heat, and sea-level rise, have happened for millennia. To attribute specific impacts to human-made environmental change requires scientists to parse through years of data and pattern detection. In this episode, we speak with climate scientist Lisa Thalheimer, of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, to explain how experts untangle the connections between climate change and migration.

June 26, 2025Episode 4323 min

Small Islands, Big Challenges: Climate Change and Migration in the Caribbean

The small island nations that make up the Caribbean are incredibly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Many people and businesses are concentrated along the coastline, exposing them to intensifying hurricanes and rising sea levels. Are these hazards prompting greater displacement, either within the region or beyond? And could they reduce tourism, prompting economic shocks to countries dependent on vacationers? This episode discusses these issues and others with Natalie Dietrich Jones, a migration expert at the University of the West Indies.