Adaptive migration: pluralising the debate on climate change and migration

Abstract

The interaction between environmental change and human mobility is attracting global attention, both in policy circles and in the contemporary literature. This introductory essay proposes using the concept of pluralism to explore the multi‐dimensional relationship between climate change and migration and to advance new perspectives and concepts to interpret the emerging theory of adaptive migration. The papers included in this themed section cover diverse issues in this area of research by focusing on the contemporary debate about the ‘migration‐as‐adaptation strategy’. The papers address six key areas: the role of law in dealing with climate‐induced migration, the category of place related to the community of origin and destination, the theme of climate justice and rights, the contribution of international organisations in framing the migration‐as‐adaptation strategy, adaptive measures developed in the Maldives, and seasonal nomadism in the East Sudan. All are quite different, but all converge in their emphasis on the role of the individual, the migrant, and on whether and how state responses are adequate in the progressive concordance between adaptation and individual capability. This introduction raises a set of salient questions that might catalyse multiple new research trajectories over the coming years.

Exploring methodological approaches to assess climate change vulnerability and adaptation: reflections from using life history approaches

“…Research on environmental migration has evolved from alarmist discourses that envisioned climate change driving environmental refugees to a focus on ascertaining the role of climate change among other, more structural drivers of mobility such as lack of opportunity, conflict, or poverty (Bettini and Gioli 2016;Gemenne and Blocher 2017). Despite growing acknowledgement of this non-linear, complex landscape of migration decision-making (Farbotko et al 2018), methods to understand how environmental drivers interact with other socioeconomic factors are 'nascent' (Bettini and Gioli 2015:7) and rarely pluralistic (Baldwin and Fornalé 2017;Piguet et al 2018). Against this gap, LHs appear to be a valuable approach to refocus environmental migration research away from causation alone to a more bottom-up, inclusive understanding of how people operate within webs of risks and responses.…”

Migration as climate adaptation? Exploring discourses amongst development actors in the Pacific Island region

“…The suggestion that labour migration can be an adaptation strategy is neither new nor unique to the Pacific region (Opeskin and MacDermott 2009;Felli 2013;Vlassopoulos 2013;Bettini 2014;Ransan-Cooper et al 2015;Baldwin and Fornalé 2017;Ober and Sakdapolrak 2017). In the global debate, this idea has been advanced by a range of policy and research actors (Barnett and Webber 2010;Foresight 2011;Black et al 2011; Asian Development Bank 2012; The World Bank 2016; Melde et al 2017).…”

Estrategias De Adaptación Y Prácticas De Cuidado en Comunidades Desplazadas Climáticas: Caso Colombiano

“…El desplazamiento climático, se entiende como una consecuencia demográfica del cambio climático, que refleja una inflexión ecológica entre la persona y su entorno físico, emocional e institucional (Amar-Amar et al, 2014) debido al empobrecimiento gradual o repentino de las condiciones ambientales de su entorno (Gonzaga & Hernández, 2014). Esta migración hoy se entiende como un fenómeno multicausal (Baldwin & Fornalé, 2017), es decir, aunque puede relacionarse con la percepción de un cambio de las condiciones ambientales del entorno, se relaciona con elementos institucionales, sociales y económicos desfavorables para la subsistencia de las personas, que los presionan a la migración y que puede involucrar de manera coexistente acciones tanto resilientes como mal adaptativas (Gemenne & Blocher, 2017). Así las cosas, el desplazamiento climático adquiere una connotación dicotómica: puede ser un detonante de problemáticas individuales y sociales o el impulso para generar condiciones favorables para las comunidades migrantes (Amar-Amar et al, 2014).…”