The Difficult Business of Defining Climate Refugees

Although the term “climate refugee” is embraced by media outlets and forces across the political spectrum, and actively rejected by others such as UN officials, there is no widely accepted definition. So, what do we mean when we talk about climate refugees? In Europe’s toxic politics of migration, what are the implications of the growing use of the term? Doctoral researcher Lydia Ayame Hiraide sets out to understand this loaded term which actors have chosen to lay bare their fears about the climate and a racialised other, as well as how we might shed its baggage.