Moderator
İbrahim Efe, Insight Turkey
Panelists
Rabia Aamir, National University of Modern Languages Islamabad Pakistan
Burak Güneş, Kırşehir Ahi Evran University Türkiye
Ching-An Chang, National Chengchi University (NCCU) Taiwan
Dr. Rabia Aamir
In her article, Rabia Aamir mainly focuses on the change in the landscape of an Arab world, namely Palestine. She conducted her research on the forced displacement as an environmental ethical concern by using case studies. As a prime case study in this chapter, she has taken a book from Ghada Karmi, a well-known Palestinian doctor. In her book written in 2002, Karmi recounts her memories of the difficulties she faced when she first returned to her hometown of Jerusalem in 1991, after her families forced migration in 1948 when they left the place where they had lived for generations. Aaamir continues her speech by emphasizing that in todays’ world, people constantly witness the forced evictions in Jerusalem through social media. Aamir, citing Karmi's book, suggests that a number of questions arise such as: why this landscape has changed and why this Palestinian Diaspora has emerged. Aamir argues that her chapter in the book ‘On Climate Migration’ mainly deals with what are the differences between environmentalism and environmental ethics by taking into account Karmi’s questions. She claims that the argument of the whole chapter she wrote revolves around how environmental ethics check the blanket assertions of environmentalism and it introduces the ethical rational of the existence of a place with its historical manifestations to understand the ideological and interpolative strategies of the occupying forces. She concludes that we must come to understand the need for a more historically informed and geographically balanced environmental ethic.
Dr. Burak Güneş
Burak Güneş has 2 articles in ‘On Climate Migration’ which were written with co-authors. His first article, together with Dr. Bengü Çelenk, has two parts. The first part of the chapter deals with climate change and its effects on developing countries and islands in the Pacific Ocean. The second part of the article considers equivalent citizens' applications for getting refugee status studies from New Zealand. In their article, Güneş and Çelenk focus on whether climate-induced problems enable people to receive Refugee status. They lay out the challenges and potentially fatal conflicts that are inherent in the emerging attempts to respect state sovereignty while crafting progressive and truly responsive stages of approaches to a sui generis global problem such as climate crisis.
The second article, written together with Haydar Karaman, observes two remarkable decisions: one taken by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2021 and the other by the United Nations General Assembly in 2020, taking Haiti as a case study. Güneş states that the case study was chosen to demonstrate how migration relates to climate and environmental changes. The authors focus their critical attention on the situation in Haiti and use it as a lens through which to examine the effects and significance of international law and politics on climate refugees. They also provide solutions that can be implemented to help people who have been forced to relocate as a result of issues related to the environment. According to Güneş, Migration as an adaption framework could be useful for policymakers in determining how voluntary migration can help reduce vulnerability and exposure to climate-related damages.
Ching-An Chang
The last panelist, Ching-An Chang, addresses the topic of the socio-economic composition of Syrian Refugees in Türkiye and he gives a brief review of his chapter in the book. Chang argues that his chapter tries to examine the situation of Syrian refugees with a focus on their social conversation and what potential resources they could contribute to their host countries. The author claims that there is still a long way to go before war refugees can return to their country of origin. Since many of these refugees have already started a new life in the nation that is housing them, it would be difficult for them to simply give up what they worked so hard to build. He argues that the demographic and social composition of the population in Türkiye should be extended, because this might be an alternative solution to their need for resources and acceptance. According to Chang, there are challenges in hosting refugees like increasing security issues and damaging the environmental situation. However, he continues that if the demographic and social economic composition of the Syrian refugees in Türkiye is considered, it can be seen that it is quite diversified. Whether the refugee issue can be considered a crisis or an opportunity for the host country depends largely on the success of those policies. As a result, he states that the creation of a long-term integration strategy for the nations that are hosting the refugees is unavoidable.
Insight Turkey hopes that the panel is fruitful and provides a better understanding of the issue at hand. The full panel can be found on our Youtube channel.
