The picturesque village of Miquelon, perched just two meters above sea level on France’s final territorial outpost in North America, is confronting an urgent reality: move or be swallowed by the rising Atlantic Ocean.

Mayor Franck Detcheverry stands atop a grassy hill overlooking the sparkling waters, surveying what will become his community’s new home. The melodic sound of bagpipes drifts up from the shoreline below, creating a poignant soundtrack to this moment of transition. From this elevated vantage point, 40 meters above the sea, the mayor can see the existing village spread across 400 buildings in the distance—buildings that may not survive much longer in their current location.

The Saint-Pierre and Miquelon archipelago, located off Canada’s Newfoundland coast, represents France’s last territorial foothold in North America. This unique “overseas collectivity” now finds itself on the front lines of climate change, as rising tides steadily erode the land beneath centuries of French heritage and culture.

The proposed relocation to higher ground has sparked intense debate among residents, who must weigh the preservation of their community against the loss of their historic homeland. This dramatic example of climate-induced migration highlights a growing global challenge: how do entire communities adapt when their ancestral lands become uninhabitable? For Miquelon’s residents, the question isn’t whether they’ll need to move, but how they’ll preserve their identity while literally moving to higher ground in the face of an unstoppable sea.