In a 2015 article published in the scientific journal PNAS, researchers claimed that climate change contributed to widespread multi-year drought and mass rural to urban migration, which in turn fomented conflict in Syria. They repeated an oft-used argument within the environmental security debate, which relied on a simplistic causal chain of events linking resource scarcity (through droughts), migration, and conflict. This is a problematic narrative—where climate change is emphasised over perhaps more important other political and socioeconomic factors. According to a UN Report by Special Rapporteur Olivier De Shutter, high rates of rural-urban migration were happening in the years before the drought and mostly triggered by the liberalisation of agricultural policies. Syrian expert, Francesa De Chatel, added in a Spiegel online article about the article’s results: “The role of climate change is not only irrelevant, emphasising it is even damaging.”

Meanwhile, in September of this year, TIME magazine published the headline “How Climate Change Is Behind the Surge of Migrants to Europe” based on the PNAS article. This is evidence of a pattern we often see in climate-migration discussions, where so-called “climate refugees” or “climate migrants” are used as clickbait. This is particularly egregious considering that the PNAS article was in itself already misleading, but it’s also dangerous for the migrants themselves.

First, it glosses over the actual causes of migration and displacement. Second, it lumps together migrants into one “mass” and discounts social inequalities that make for vulnerable circumstances leading to migration. Third, it sows fear in Europe and other receiving countries that there are “climate barbarians at the gate,” which exacerbates already existing xenophobic tensions.