Where Next? Climate Change, Migration, and the (Bio)politics of Adaptation

Abstract

The series of recent hecatombs in the Mediterranean, together with the regressive reactions we have witnessed in and around Europe, highlight the importance of posing the question of climate change and migration. Climate change will interact with a number of drivers of migration, and will hit hardest on the weakest and most exposed -which often include migrants as well as those too poor to move. However, how the climate-migration nexus can be addressed in fair and equitable ways (with what concepts, in what fora, through what policies) is far from a simple question. This intervention proposes two main arguments. First, a brief overview of recent debates suggests that we are still far from any progressive approaches to 'climate migration' -those that have emerged are different expressions of biopolitical discourses on sustainable development and resilience. Second, this intervention invites to reconsider the widely held and depoliticising assumption that climate migration is a 'problem to be solved' -for instance, by UNFCCC. Rather, the nexus should be seen as a set of open questions on different alternative climate futures, as well as a symptom of the irreducibly political tensions inherent in every form of mobility as much as in every attempt to discipline/govern it.

Using Government Resettlement Projects as a Sustainable Adaptation Strategy for Climate Change

“…As early as 1990, it was pointed out that the greatest single impact of climate change could be on human migration [3]. As climate change increases, the migration pressures related to these changes may also grow [4]. Climate-change-related migration has therefore become a major concern for policy-makers.…”

Environmental Mobility in a Polarized World: Questioning the Pertinence of the “Climate Refugee” Label for Pacific Islanders

“…This tense political context urges us to question the utility of creating a “climate refugee” category under international law, especially as alarmist rhetoric over a legally inexistent category of persons continue to produce counterproductive “doom and gloom” discourses, fueling xenophobic reactions in the West and minimizing the agency of affected peoples (Bettini 2013 ; Boas et al 2019 ). For some authors, “crisis narratives about climate refugees and conflict serve the interests of national security actors” (Hartmann 2010 :239), by conjuring sentiments of overwhelming human displacements that in reality, as research shows, will most likely remain internal for now (McAdam 2011 ; Bettini 2017 ). Of course, climate-led movements will intensify and necessitate border crossing in some particular cases, such as for small island states with very limited land (McNamara 2015 ), but the logistical costs associated with moving and the disproportionate effects of climate change on poorer communities suggests that internal mobility is more plausible, especially in the short to medium term.…”

Climate change induced socio-economic tipping points: review and stakeholder consultation for policy relevant research

“…One should be careful not to overemphasize the role of biophysical change while neglecting the co-determining social, political and economic variables. Such a 'naïve' approach has received criticism in the literature on migration, the collapse of ancient societies and the impacts of natural disasters (Butzer 2012, Bettini 2017, Freeman 2017, Soens 2018. A relatively 'slow' process such as climate change will most likely only cause abrupt change of a socio-economic system when the system was already on the edge of its resilience due to co-determining factors, or when there is a very large disaster-like perturbation, or recurring smaller disasters, on top of the gradual trend (van Nes et al 2016).…”