High Temperatures Are Already Sending Refugees to Europe
A study finds a link between crop-harming weather and asylum applications to the European Union.
Can unexpected weather make a war or a failed state more likely? It’s a question that could define the 21st century.
A new study, published Thursday in Science, finds a link between temperature variation and forced migration.
When unusually hot or cold weather strikes the growing region of an agricultural country, more people living in that country seek asylum protection in the European Union. Those people are then, in turn, more likely to be accepted as permanent residents by the EU.
Because asylum applicants must be fleeing conflict or persecution—and because their acceptance seems to validate the severity of their claims—the study’s authors say they’ve found an underlying
