THE INTEGRATION OF THE CONCEPTS OF MIGRATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY

Abstract

The accelerating intersection of climatic and ecological stressors with human mobility challenges conventional separations between migration policy and environmental security agendas. This article proposes an integrated conceptualization in which migration is understood both as a response to environmental risks and as a potential instrument for managing those risks. Using a structured narrative review, we synthesize human security, political ecology, and adaptation frameworks to explain how exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity shape mobility decisions and how mobility feeds back into environmental risk profiles at origin and destination. We argue that internal and cross-border movements can reduce vulnerability by diversifying livelihoods, redistributing population away from high-risk areas, and enabling remittance-financed adaptation, but may also heighten risk when governance gaps channel migrants into hazard-prone settlements or degrade common-pool resources. Integrating migration into environmental security thus requires institutions that expand safe, legal, and affordable mobility options while aligning land-use, infrastructure, and social protection with risk-informed planning.