Framing Migration as Adaptation: IOM’s Aspirations to Manage Climate Migration

Abstract

At the 2010 UNFCCC Conference in Cancún, migration as a consequence of climate change entered the Cancún Adaptation Framework. It did so in a specific way, being framed as an adaptation strategy to climate change. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) backed the framing of migration as an adaptation early on and pushed for its inclusion in Cancún. Through the analysis of 121 documents and six expert interviews, this article traces how IOM’s identity and interest shape how the organisation deploys the adaptation framing. Climate migration is traditionally situated beyond IOM’s mandate; however, the organisation was present in the institutional process through which the adaptation framing emerged and now carries out operational projects related to the topic. This article shows how IOM uses the adaptation framing to reassert its own aspiration to manage climate migration and assert itself as the dominant migration agency.