Migration due to climate change has been going on for millennia, and societies´ resilience will be put to pressure even more with an accelerating global warming.22, 5 million people have left their homes due to climate change since 2008, according to the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, 2017). All of these people are not recognized as refugees, but some of them will most likely seek refuge abroad. The aim of this Master´s thesis is to explore how the UN, the EU, and Sweden understand and analyse the phenomenon of climate induced migration from a geopolitical aspect. It is furthermore to explore the institution´s preparedness through analysing the suggested measurements they utilise today and recognize a need for the future. Applying a human security perspective, this thesis aims at exploring the following two questions; what views and perspectives of climate induced migration exist in the UN, the EU and among Swedish authorities, and what legal, technical, economic or other measures do they respond with to meet climate induced migration? The results confirm that there is a consensus among the institutions that climate change will lead to cross-border migration to some extent but the preparedness for it is inadequate in terms of available measurements.

This thesis explores the growing phenomenon of climate refugees and their right to protection. The aim is to investigate from the Human Security Approach developed by UNDP, if the human insecurities highlighted covers the situation of climate refugees making them eligible for protection. Thus, the purpose is to examine if insecurities caused by climate change are reason enough to be granted asylum in Sweden and if not, what the debate on extending asylum to climate refugees looks like. The research questions for this thesis are: What insecurities do the Swedish legislation consider grounds for granting asylum that could include the protection of climate refugees? and How do the debates in the Swedish Riksdag and the European Parliament discuss climate refugees and their legal status in Sweden's and the EU's asylum regulations? A qualitative content analysis of the Swedish Aliens Act and the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) revealed that even though all insecurities listed by the Human Security Approach are considered grounds for granting asylum, protection for climate refugees is not guaranteed. Consequently, debates in the Swedish and European Parliaments were examined to explore the intentions of extending the right to protection for climate refugees by including them in the legal framework. While the debates in the Swedish Parliament showed no indication of changing the legislation to include climate refugees, the European Parliament both debated and voted on proposals which sought to extend protection to climate refugees. Nonetheless, it is still not decided whether or not the EU will include climate refugees as a legal status in its asylum system.

The scope of this study is to analyse the phenomenon climate migration through the theories Securitization, Externalization of Border and World Systems Analysis. The study seeks answers to how factors and structures have limited the rights of climate refugees in the modern world system by analysing what obstacles and opportunities exist on the issue. The World System Analysis explains the underlying structures of the current world system and how it has generated climate migration as well as states' desire to preserve their sovereignty. The World System Analysis can also provide an explanation how these structures have led to a securitization of migration, which manifests itself through the implementation of several mechanisms such as Externalization of Border to stop the imaginary threat that climate refugees are viewed as. The study was conducted via qualitative text analysis of carefully selected articles and books to bring several relevant perspectives to the study. The study formulates conclusions based on both historical- and contemporary events to bring clarity to the issue on what space climate refugees have in the modern world system.