| Issue/Objective |
Climate change-related extreme weather events (EWEs) such as heatwaves, wildfires, and flooding are increasingly shaping patterns of forced migration and exacerbating health inequities. Women living with precarious migration statuses face compounded risks due to intersecting exposures to racialization, gender-based violence, and limited access to services. Despite growing recognition of climate-driven displacement, there remains a critical gap in adaptation and mitigation innovations that are grounded in migrant women's lived experiences and usable by health and settlement systems. This study aims to generate practical, equity-oriented insights into how women impacted by forced migration experience and respond to EWEs, and to identify implementable adaptive strategies and tools that strengthen climate resilience within global health systems. |
| Methodology/Approach |
Guided by intersectional environmentalism and community-based research principles, this qualitative study employs a constructivist grounded theory design. The research is conducted across urban and remote regions of British Columbia, Canada, in partnership with settlement and health-focused non-profit organizations. In-depth interviews are being conducted with 36 racially marginalized women who have experienced forced migration and climate-related disruptions. Data collection and analysis occur concurrently to ensure relevance, feasibility, and cultural safety. The study spans a two-year period, integrating iterative analysis with community-led refinement of emerging findings. |
| Results |
Emerging findings position EWEs as a threat multiplier within forced migration contexts, intensifying social isolation, psychological distress, and exposure to gender-based violence while simultaneously narrowing access to timely, culturally appropriate supports. Participants identify adaptive practices that function as micro-level climate adaptation tools, including informal mutual aid networks, multilingual information-sharing strategies, and service navigation practices that mitigate psychosocial harm during climate disruptions. However, these strategies remain under-recognized and unsupported within formal climate and health response systems. |
| Discussion/Conclusion |
This research advances climate change adaptation innovation by translating migrant women's experiential knowledge into actionable insights for global health, settlement, and policy systems. Findings point to scalable, low-cost adaptation strategies that can be embedded within health and social service infrastructures to improve preparedness and responsiveness for climate-affected migrant populations. By centering forced migration within climate adaptation discourse, the study underscores the necessity of migration-sensitive, equity-driven tools for mitigating climate impacts, offering transferable lessons for global health systems confronting climate-induced displacement worldwide. |
| Presenters and Affiliations |
Dr. Shahin Kassam University of British Columbia Okanagan |
