From Ravaged Livelihoods in the Global South to Mediterranean Crossings: The Reality of Climate Migration

The Mediterranean Sea is the focus of our research, as it is a major migration corridor from Africa and Asia, with Greece serving as a key entry point to Europe. Based on 70 semi‐structured interviews with migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers currently residing in Greece and Belgium, this article examines how individuals from climate‐vulnerable regions in South Asia, sub‐Saharan Africa, and the Middle East shaped their decision to migrate away from their home countries. Employing the testimonies and data collected through the interviews, we investigated how disasters due to extreme weather, such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves, which have been inarguably linked to climate change, intersect with traditional migration drivers such as poverty, conflict, and human rights violations. While perceptions of the role of climate change as a factor in the movement of people who have already come to Europe as refugees or asylum seekers may vary, our findings based on their own statements reveal that climate‐related disasters triggered their displacement. Our research reveals that climate migrants are not a future reality; rather, many have already reached Europe seeking safer livelihoods. By anchoring personal narratives in verifiable climate events, this article underscores the need to acknowledge climate‐related mobility as a fact and a multifaceted issue—one that calls for revisiting conventional categories of forced migration and protection and prioritising climate action in the Global South.

• Publication year

  2026

• Venue

  Ocean and Society

• Publication date

  2026-01-28

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.17645/oas.11445
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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