Making Space for Climate Migrants: Exploring Urban Policies to Support Climate Displaced Populations

Global climate change is leading to increased migration and displacement, within countries and internationally between countries. These influxes of migrants are often unsupported by policy in their new cities, leading to many negative impacts such as lower per capita income, homeownership rates, and educational attainment rates. The lack of policy support is prohibitive towards placemaking, which is a migrant’s ability to make a new place feel like a home. In creating policy to support climate migrants and placemaking within those communities, cities should embrace flexibility and informality, practice proper hazard mitigation to ensure that migrants do not end up back at risk, and work to build spaces that promote building social capital. Understanding the trauma of environmental disasters compounded with dislocation and the social stressors of adjusting to a new place highlights the importance of utilizing trauma-informed design. This toolkit provides a guide for cities in creating policy accordingly.