Julian Hattem
Editor, Migration Information Source
Julian Hattem is Editor of the Migration Information Source, the online journal of the Migration Policy Institute, and is responsible for its content and publication.
Before joining MPI, he spent a decade as a journalist focusing on international migration, politics, and conflict. He has been on staff with the Associated Press, The Hill, and the Yomiuri Shimbun, and has been awarded journalism fellowships from the Heinrich Boell Foundation North America and the International Reporting Project to report on migration in Southern Europe and Southeast Asia. As a freelance journalist he reported from four continents, and his articles have been published by outlets including the Guardian, the Washington Post, Public Radio International, World Politics Review, National Public Radio, and Quartz.
Mr. Hattem holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in conflict studies from the London School of Economics.
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Popular discussions usually frame climate change-induced migration negatively, often as a strategy of last resort. But migrating abroad can also be an effective way to build resilience against the impacts of climate change.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants have left Central America in recent years, and climate extremes have been identified as one of the factors that might be driving this movement, along with elements such as political instability and violence.
Climate change and international migration both are global issues with aspects that countries try to manage through treaties, pacts, and other types of agreements. But most of the global governance frameworks that exist for climate-induced migration require only voluntary commitments by states.
Among the earliest examples of the disruptions that climate change can bring, some low-lying island countries in the Pacific Ocean are facing serious threats from rising sea levels and coastal erosion. Over the long term, atoll nations such as Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Marshall Islands might eventually need to relocate some or all of their populations.
Climate change is already affecting how, whether, and where people migrate. But environmental change is likely to become more extreme, unless the world takes serious action now. How might changes made now impact what future migration looks like?