As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of natural hazards, the devastation and destruction left behind grows. Land becomes unhabitable, and infrastructure crumbles, causing migration for survival. However, climate refugees are not able to access the same benefits as someone fleeing persecution because environmental destruction is not a category for which someone could seek asylum. 

Philanthropy has a vital role to play in understanding and addressing the needs and rights of refugees, asylum-seekers, immigrants, and laborers, as well as the root causes of displacement.

In 2020, due to closed borders and other COVID-19 restrictions, slightly more than 400,000 people crossed a U.S. border to claim asylum. By fiscal year 2023 (ending Sept. 30, 2023), this number had grown eightfold to reach 3.2 million encounters. This included over 2 million single adults, nearly 1 million individuals in a family unit, almost 138,000 unaccompanied minors and nearly 7,500 accompanied minors. While the largest number of asylum seekers came from Mexico at just under 736,000 encounters, there were also people from countries as disparate as China, Colombia, Cuba, Haiti, India, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela. The U.S. is struggling to manage this influx of asylees. 

Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s new Vice President of Strategy, Innovation and Special Projects, Nicole Behnam, moderated a webinar titled “Strangers in a strange land: Migrants and disasters in the U.S." and panelists included:

Cynthia Hernandez spoke about the job market for migrants and the intersections with natural hazards. She said, “Many will start in agriculture and move to construction or reconstruction occupations. With the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters that we’re witnessing each year, an emerging workforce of reconstruction workers are needed to help rebuild our cities and communities after these hurricanes, floods, wildfires and tornadoes. So this workforce is made up of mostly migrants and immigrants, and we call this workforce the resilience workforce. Many of the immigrants and migrants that I work with are part of the resilience workforce and have actually had to flee their home countries because of natural disasters.”

Unfortunately, disaster zones “are ripe for wage theft and workplace abuses”. Weak labor institutions and enforcement lead to millions of dollars of wages being withheld from employees and abuse in the workplace. Hernandez said that Resilience Force promotes “Good Jobs Principles” ensuring recovery for everyone.

Eliza Brennan emphasized the importance of investing in efforts that address root causes. Reducing harms and disparities in sending countries can help reduce the strain and challenges of mass asylum seekers coming to the U.S. She said, “all of this requires investments in a robust and healthy civil society. I think that those who have been funding in countries like Mexico and Central America are seeing how critical [the work nonprofits do to] civil society being able to respond to people's needs and ensure their rights are protected wherever they are.”

It is not always an easy decision to leave one’s country. Zenobia Lai encouraged attendees to imagine how horrible the situation must be for parents to decide to send young children to another countr(ies) unaccompanied. “If home is not that dangerous, why would a parent send a five-year-old alone, by themselves, and hand over your child to a stranger to lead the child across through countries and the Rio Grande to come to the United States? I think this is connected to the climate change issue that we brought up earlier, and I also mentioned the increasing number of children are of indigenous origin. So that is a legacy of colonialism, Lands are made no longer suitable to produce food to support a family. And on top of that, we have an increasing number of disasters, that basically wipe out whatever land that they have left for productive use. And then, in between, we also have civil wars for decades. For many of the parents, they see that there's no future for their children.”

Donors were encouraged to:

  1. Learn about the laws for people seeking asylum. Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 14 is the Right to Asylum. As funders, it is important to learn the laws and guidelines covering asylees and refugees. Know who is present in our communities to better provide support for them before, during and after disasters. CDP’s disaster profile “Refugees, Asylum Seekers and the U.S.” explores these issues in more depth. 
  2. Recognize that our economy would collapse without migrant workers. There are about 14 million non-permanent residents in the U.S. who often take on physically demanding and dangerous jobs in the domestic, industrial and agricultural fields. For example, in the one trillion-dollar agricultural sector, 73% of workers in the U.S. are immigrant farmworkers. As Cynthia mentioned, it is important for funders to support organizations that protect these workers from wage theft, exploitation and harm from disasters and ensure recovery includes migrant workers. 
  3. Address the original crises to reduce migration. The United States has an important role to play in accepting immigrants, refugees and migrants, and as just mentioned, as a country, we need these workers. At the same time, as funders, we also have a role to play in supporting solutions to the original crises that caused someone to flee their country, whether they were caused by violence, war, corruption or climate change.  

Watch the full webinar Strangers in a strange land: Migrants and disasters in the U.S. at The Center for Disaster Philanthropy.