A New Nansen Passport for the Territorially Dispossessed

There is a significant risk that some Small Island States will become uninhabitable due to sea level rises, driven by anthropogenic climate change. Should this happen, citizens of such states will be forced to migrate but, under the current system of international law, these migrants could become stateless. Inspired by the Nansen passport, the first travel document issued to stateless persons, this article proposes that migrants from threatened island states (the territorially dispossessed) should be provided with a modern equivalent: a “Passport for the Territorially Dispossessed” (PTD). A PTD also gives its holder a right to choose their new nationality. The PTD proposal has an advantage over competing suggestions that states should admit a set proportion of these migrants. Quota schemes will generally fail to appropriately compensate the territorially dispossessed. The principle of free choice, by contrast, allows them to retain a measure of control over their destiny and to migrate with dignity.