Today's climate refugees, tomorrow's terrorist recruits
A recent New York Times article, highlighted the plight of the victims of climate change, who are forced to leave their homes due to changes in weather patterns, flooding, encroaching sea waters, and desertification. Because people displaced by climate change do not qualify for refugee status and often have very limited funds, internal migration from effected rural areas to large urban centers is considerably more common than international relocation.
In our recent Are We Winning? report on terrorism, we highlighted the potential danger of ungoverned urban spaces as a breeding ground for terrorist recruitment and training. Impoverished migrants have to live in slums and shantytowns on the outskirts of major cities in developing nations while eking out a living in the manufacturing and service sectors. Their children are unable to attend school. Lawlessness abounds in these neighborhoods. Dhaka alone is expected to have more than 400,000 migrants a year—a city where half of its current inhabitants live in slums already. As climate refugees “flood” megacities in developing countries, they add to the strain of already overburdened resources and provide a growing pool of people living in poverty, under poor governance, and susceptible to radicalism.
