Climate, floods, and migration in Pakistan

Abstract

This commentary offers a glimpse into the complex landscape of climate‐induced migration in rural Pakistan. By shedding light on the interplay between gradual ecological shifts and rapid climate shocks, it exposes the misalignment between climate policies and the mobility strategies of marginalized communities. The vulnerabilities of rural Pakistanis facing climate and ecological shocks, like the 2022 floods, are rooted in the historical mismanagement of land and water commons. The current focus on infrastructure‐heavy interventions does not address the rigidity introduced by colonial and postcolonial interventions, which have undermined the seasonal mobility and fluidity of pastoralists, peasants, fishers and the landless in rural Pakistan. Thinking climate and migration together requires us to consider the socio‐economic constraints and drivers of migration, burgeoning political conflicts, and the ecological consequences of infrastructure‐heavy climate adaptation strategies by global investors and the Pakistani state.

Letter from the editors

“…Issue 3 of 2023 delved into the politics of boundary making in migration knowledge production with contributions by Carling (2023), Reed and Schenck (2023) and Samaddar (2023). Following the Turkey–Syria earthquake, a series of commentaries (61:4) highlighted wider implications of migration, emplacement and resettlement in situation of natural disasters (Buhaug, 2023; Comfort, 2023; Kamal, 2023; Quetulio‐Navarra, 2023; Sevinin et al., 2023). The commentaries of Issue 5 discussed various forms of bordering and surveillance at and beyond territorial borders (Aradau, 2023; Frowd et al., 2023; Molnar, 2023; Topak, 2023; Walters, 2023).…”