Robert McLeman is a professor of environmental studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada. He has been researching the impacts of climate and other environmental changes on human migration for more than 20 years and serves on the Climate Migration Council.
TK: What inspired you to pursue a career at the intersection of environmental science and human migration?
McLeman: As an undergraduate, I studied physical geography, but I took a detour and ended up joining the Canadian Foreign Service. I worked there for about 12 years, in diplomatic missions in different parts of the world. What got me interested in climate migration was that in the early 1990s, we started to see reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warning that things were changing around the globe, including the large-scale displacement of people.
I was in Hong Kong at the time, where local researchers were studying the implications of sea level rise. I ended up doing my Master of Science degree at the University of Hong Kong and made climate migration my thesis project. Later, I left the Foreign Service to do my PhD at the University of Guelph in Canada. My research focused on drought-related migration in the United States, specifically the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s, and comparing what happened during that period to what might happen in the future. That’s what brought me into an academic career.
TK: How did this lead you to the Climate Migration Council?
McLeman: When the Climate Migration Council started a few years ago, they were looking for academics to join their team, which included experts in urban planning and government. It seemed like a great initiative to bring the impact of climate change on migration to the forefront for decision-makers, and I liked their emphasis on cities. About 10 years ago, the global population transitioned from being primarily rural to urban, and urbanization rates are growing worldwide.
Cities will be places people are displaced from in certain circumstances, but in other cases, they’ll be where people end up moving. It’s critical to understand these dynamics as urban centers plan for the future.
TK: How do environmental changes drive human migration, and why is this a critical issue for local leaders and communities?
McLeman: It’s a really complex set of interactions. Let me use the example of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to illustrate. Before the storm hit, people tended to evacuate to nearby counties and parishes, or just out of state. Then, when the flooding came, folks evacuated with government assistance, and many ended up farther away in places like Houston, San Antonio, and Atlanta.
What happened afterward tells of the complexity. The housing stock immediately shrank because of the flooding. People who came back tended to be homeowners with salvageable homes. Renters and those whose homes were completely destroyed often couldn’t return. These differences frequently fell along socioeconomic and racial lines.
At the same time, new migrants came into New Orleans. Historically, the city has had a large Caribbean population. After Katrina, however, many construction workers who had originally come to the US from Central America and Mexico arrived to help with the rebuilding effort. If you were to take a snapshot of the city each year after Katrina, you’d see demographic dynamics constantly shifting.
When we think about the relationship between climate and migration, we often simplify it to people losing their homes and moving elsewhere. But for policymakers, managing a city in a climate-disrupted world is far more complex. It involves factors like housing markets, labor markets, insurance regimes, government interventions, and family networks. Some people are trapped and want to relocate but lack the means, while others don’t want to leave because of strong cultural or social ties to their community, such as Indigenous groups or the Black population in New Orleans that’s been there for hundreds of years.
Displacement events often create immense emotional and social stress, particularly for those who cannot return to their communities.
TK: How do organizations like the Climate Migration Council address these challenges?
McLeman: Organizations like the Climate Migration Council are essential because while a lot of great research is being done in STEM disciplines, the challenge lies in mobilizing it for planning. Too often, we only turn to researchers after a disaster has already happened.
The Council brings expertise in how policies are made, how government structures interact, and how resources can be mobilized. Academics like me can forecast what’s likely to happen, but we’re not the ones who know how to execute policy or allocate resources. The Council has influential members who can advise senior decision-makers at federal, state, and local levels and emphasize that we need to plan for these challenges now. They show there’s solid science behind solutions and outline how to start implementing them.
TK: What advice do you have for young professionals and students interested in this field?
McLeman: I teach first-year science students at Wilfrid Laurier University, and we talk about these issues directly. Climate change isn’t going away, and its impacts are only intensifying. This means there will be more career opportunities in this field every year.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re studying biology, engineering, or even business administration—your expertise can make a real difference. My message to students is to think about how you can apply your skills to address climate-related disruptions to economies and people’s lives. There’s financial opportunity in these fields, but the potential for social good is even greater.
I also speak to older adults, like newly retired professionals, who want to make a difference. Even if their careers weren’t in this field, they can contribute to civil society organizations or serve on local government councils working on climate adaptation plans. There’s more work to do than people available to do it, so I encourage them to lend their energy to building climate-resilient communities.
TK: What trends will shape how local governments address migration over the next decade?
McLeman: Cities need to prepare for population shifts caused by climate change impacts like drought, wildfires, and sea-level rise. In 2016, I attended a workshop at Portland State University where urban planners from Seattle and Portland discussed how these cities, already fast-growing, would need to accommodate even more migration in the coming decades.
For example, as water scarcity worsens in the Southwest and fires and heat affect other regions, more people will look to relocate to cities like Portland and Seattle. Planners asked, “What percentage of people can we expect each year, and how do we plan infrastructure for them?” They emphasized the need for at least 20 years of lead time to build roads, wastewater treatment plants, and other infrastructure to support growing populations.
Other cities, like Miami, may face a different reality and need to plan for population decline as sea-level rise becomes unmanageable. In all cases, decisions can’t be delayed. Municipalities must also address affordable housing and ensure access to primary healthcare, especially in low-income neighborhoods.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution; each city has its own challenges. But the sooner communities start planning for climate-related migration, the better prepared they’ll be.
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