New Book Details Benefits of Refugees As Climate Change Drives Migration

I just finished “Nomad Century” by Gaia Vince and this is one of the most compelling and informative books I have ever read about migration.

Vince makes it clear that climate change will continue to dramatically drive global migration in the coming years and that countries need to proactively develop effective strategies for welcoming migrants. Canada is an example of how this can be done, she notes.

In chapter 5 of the book, “Wealth of Migrants,” Vince details how immigrants expand economies, innovation and wealth.

In an interview with NPR about the book, Vince said that “Migration this century is inevitable. This is my way of staring head-on what we are facing, which is degrees Celsius hotter. These are deadly temperatures. So what I’m saying is we have mass migration. Let’s manage it. Let’s not veer from one utter crisis to another with many deaths and with social unrest and political unrest. And we need people to do this. This could be done in a manageable, safe, equitable way. Or it could be a catastrophe.”

In an an extract from her book published in the Guardian, she states that global population will continue to rise in the coming decades, peaking at perhaps 10 billion in the 2060s. “Most of this increase will be in the tropical regions that are worst hit by climate catastrophe, causing people there to flee northwards. The global north faces the opposite problem – a “top-heavy” demographic crisis, in which a large elderly population is supported by a too-small workforce,” Vince writes.