YPS funding enabled a new course on climate migration, jointly organized by Yale Law School and the Yale School of the Environment, titled “Framing Climate Migration: Science, Policy, Ethics, and Politics of a Growing Crisis.” The interdisciplinary class, held in spring and fall of 2025, gathered data to determine the extent to which climate change is causing human displacement, to guide legal protections for climate migrants, and to understand the needs of communities that are receiving migrants.
The project team’s overall goal, co-developed with the United Nations and other leading migration and refugee organizations, is to have climate migration enter the public discourse in a positive and proactive way. The students’ work is key to the project and has already led to one innovative approach.
“Our work in New Haven and New England uncovered how much climate migrants are already contributing to culture and the economy. So, one of the class’s ideas is to plan for an annual climate migration celebration on campus,” said Michel. “Imagine if the first time people heard of the connection between climate and migration was in the context of a celebration of new cultures.”
The climate migration project advances interdisciplinary education and hands-on research with local and international partners. The project has fostered close collaboration with the Angola government and the UN International Organization for Migration to study the impacts of climate chance on shaping the pattern of internal displacement and migration in southern Angola as well as work on two other case studies in close collaboration with the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), South Brooklyn Sanctuary, Junta for Progressive Action, Make the Road CT, Sanctuary Kitchen, and an informal organization of the Shuar (Amazonian) community members.
In addition, nine students conducted summer field research in Angola, New Haven, and New York on the lived experiences of climate migrants to better understand climate science attribution, local adaptation strategies, and the roles of community support systems and women within these communities. The research shed light on the impact of extreme events on migration patterns and transition routes and the social, cultural, and economic contributions of migrants to host communities, providing actionable knowledge that can inform policy and legal frameworks.
Last updated October 2025.
