Disaster Displacement and International Protection in the EU

Dr. Chiara Scissa is a Research Fellow in EU Law at Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, Department of Social and Political Sciences. Previously, she worked as a Researcher in the Energy, Climate, and Resources Program at Istituto Affari Internazionali and as a Research Collaborator at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, where she obtained her PhD in Law cum laude with a specialization in disaster displacement in international refugee law and EU asylum law. Dr. Scissa is an expert in the intersections between climate change, disasters, and displacement from a legal and judicial perspective, with a particular focus on EU migration and asylum law, and has consulted for UN agencies, international organizations, NGOs, and consultancy agencies on the nexus between climate change and migration.

Dr. Chiara Scissa’s new book, Disaster Displacement and International Protection in the EU: Challenges, Misconceptions, and the Way Forward (Routledge, 2026), provides the conceptual understanding and analysis that have been lacking until now. It “accepts” that the law is fuzzy, that there are overlapping frameworks, and then sets out clear insights into how to analyze international law and EU law, and even provides a vulnerability lens. The role of scholarship is to promote thinking as to what is clear and what requires greater clarity, and Dr. Scissa’s book does that lucidly and precisely.Geoff Gilbert, Professor of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, University of Essex, the UKDr. Chiara Scissa's insightful monograph sheds light on the critical intersection of disaster displacement and international protection in the EU. By addressing misconceptions and policy gaps, this timely work is essential for scholars, legal practitioners, and policymakers alike, advancing a necessary dialogue on effective protection mechanisms for vulnerable populations.Madalina Moraru, Associate Professor of EU Law, University of Bologna, ItalyThis book innovatively examines the complex issue of the need to protect people displaced by disasters. In addition to the limitations of the EU common asylum system, it remarkably reflects on future prospects for protection in a political context characterized by barriers to the effective exercise of the right to asylum.Martina Flamini, Judge, Supreme Court of Cassation, ItalyThis book is both timely and necessary. Timely, because it fills a critical gap in the literature by providing an in-depth review of the legal and policy landscape in the European Union, highlighting structural features and interpretive approaches which, presently at least, mean most claims brought in Europe grounded in climate change and disasters impacts elsewhere fail. Necessary, because it charts the way forward: towards legal interpretations better reflecting the social and political nature of all “natural” disasters, and towards policy settings which better facilitate access to protection procedures. Bruce Burson, Judge, Immigration and Protection Tribunal, New Zealand

• Introduction Chapter 1 Misconceptions of Disaster Displacement Chapter 2 Challenges in Applying and International Protection in the Context of Disaster Displacement Chapter 3 State-led Barriers to Asylum and Disaster Displacement Chapter 4 Practices of Protection Against Disaster Displacement Across the World. Insights from Europe and Italy. Conclusion The Way Forward. Counterating Approaches to Challenges to Protection in the Context of Disaster Displacement in the EU.