By Gwyneth K. Shaw
A new report from Berkeley Law’s Human Rights Clinic finds that the growing impact of climate change is acting as a powerful threat multiplier in Central America — exacerbating violence, exclusion, discrimination, and weak state protection and driving migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
“Climate Change and Migration From Central America: Insights From Migrants in Mexico,” written in partnership with the Institute for Women in Migration (IMUMI), draws on a 2024 survey of 87 migrants in transit, interviews, and desk research. The findings reveal that environmental shocks such as droughts and storms deepen existing poverty, disrupt access to food and water, and erode fragile living conditions.
Human Rights Clinic Supervising Attorney Helen Kerwin, who wrote the report, says just under half of the migrants the team surveyed considered environmental or climate factors to be one reason that they’d decided to move — but none of the respondents considered them to be the only reason. Traditional factors like insecurity, violence, and unemployment were also major considerations.
“We think this tells us a few things: First, climate migration is already a reality, and second, the impacts of climate change do not operate in a vacuum,” she says. “We conceptualize climate impacts as increasing precarity for people already facing difficult circumstances. When a hurricane or flooding destroys one’s home or exposes a family to disease, or persistent drought and changing growing seasons decrease crop yields and demand for farmworkers, these impacts decrease individuals’ capacity to adapt to, or protect themselves from, other dangers, progressively restricting the options available to protect their lives and safety.”
It’s also important, Kerwin adds, to acknowledge government failures as a cause of migration: The lack of state support for rebuilding, ensuring dignified housing, protecting food and water sources, and promoting public safety forces migration as an adaptive response.
Informing a growing debate
The clinic developed the project in partnership with IMUMI to analyze the current reality of climate change-linked migration in Mexico and Central America. The goal, Kerwin says, was to build on other clinic projects on migration and the rights of migrants — and bring additional data to the global conversation about climate change and migration.
“There has been growing interest in the topic in recent years, and much scholarly debate about how to ensure access to regular migration status, including refugee status, humanitarian visas, and other forms of status, to climate migrants,” she says. “We felt it was important to contribute to empirical knowledge about how the impacts of climate change are currently affecting people on the move, to better inform these legal debates.”
IMUMI staff and volunteers conducted the survey interviews, and while the sample size is relatively small, it offers a valuable snapshot of the lived experiences of people on the move. And their stories are harrowing.
A Salvadoran woman abandoned farming after a rash of failed harvests and opened a corner store, only to become a target for gang extortion that forced her to flee the country. An Afro-Miskito man left northern Honduras after death threats from organized crime when he tried to defend his home in an environmentally protected area. Rising food prices following hurricanes squeezed the ability of an indigenous Guatemalan woman to earn a living selling produce. A Nicaraguan man left his country due to political persecution by the Sandinista party — pressure amplified by the destruction of his family’s home in a devastating hurricane.
More than 80% of respondents experienced at least one climate event in the five years before leaving, with 55% facing four or more. The most reported events included hurricanes, heatwaves, and flooding. Landslides, droughts, changes to growing seasons, and forest fires were also common. Honduran and Nicaraguan migrants reported the highest exposure.
Among those affected, more than half reported lost jobs, lost crops, property damage, lost access to water or electricity, and infectious disease. Large majorities also said they lacked access to clean water and food because of climate complications. These impacts disproportionately affected women, and the survey also exposed a serious gap in aid: Only a quarter of respondents said they had received government help.
The report also includes multiple recommendations for improving the situation, including bolstering the Mexican agency that handles asylum claims and taking climate concerns into consideration in refugee and protection decisions.
Gaining valuable experience
Several Human Rights Clinic students worked with Kerwin on the report, and 2Ls Rachel Rood-Ojalvo and Sam Klein-Markman traveled to Mexico City with her recently for the study’s official release.
“The study takes as a baseline that climate change impacts occur in a broader social and political context. This is particularly important to understand in a region like Central America, where levels of migration are already extremely high and have been for decades, reflecting the impact of gang violence, weak rule of law, and severe inequality, among others,” Kerwin says. “Students contributed to the work to contextualize the findings, participated in interviews with key informants, conducted analysis of the survey results, and prepared legal analysis to orient the report’s recommendations.”
3L Kate Doorley, who was part of the team that crunched the data, says her experience highlighted how much care is needed when interpreting this type of information.
“Much of my work involved analyzing data that reflected individuals’ complex and personal experiences,” she says. “What we found in many of the accounts was that the factors driving migration were multifaceted and layered. Making sure our analysis stayed true to respondents’ experiences was something the team took really seriously. We wanted to approach it in a way that honored and reflected that complexity.”
Classmate Marielena Rodas enjoyed the opportunity to engage in real time with nongovernmental organizations, community activists, and people affected by the pressures the team was studying.
“Our particular project allowed us to work closely with a women-led NGO in Mexico that was gathering testimony from migrants in transit. We were in turn able to analyze those testimonies alongside data on legal migration pathways, identifying opportunities within the current legal migration regime,” she says. “This affirmed that cross-border collaboration can help ensure that legal analysis remains responsive to the realities faced by affected communities.”
Rood-Ojalvo says it was amazing to see the clinic’s final report make its public debut and get positive feedback. She was particularly struck by seeing how the relationships Kerwin built when she worked at IMUMI had endured and opened the door to collaboration on the study.
“Working with the Human Rights Clinic has added a rich practical experience to my law school education,” she says. “I’m grateful to complement my classroom learning with meaningful hands-on work, relationship building, and in-person experiences like the Mexico City trip. After working on my clinic project for a full school year, it was so special to travel to Mexico City to meet our clients and to attend the report launch, witness the report’s packed, lively reception, and see the project’s impact in the real world.”
Clinic Director Roxanna Altholz ’99 says the report’s findings underscore the importance of considering a wider range of pressure points to better understand what’s driving migration around the world.
“At a time when migrants are scapegoated rather than understood, this report reflects the Human Rights Clinic’s commitment to grounding advocacy in evidence and lived experience,” she says. “If we want effective and humane responses to migration, we must begin with an empirically-grounded understanding of the forces driving people to leave their homes.”