Climate refugees: A useful concept? Towards an alternative vocabulary of ecological displacement

Abstract

Against the background of climate scepticism and raging anti-immigrant sentiments across Europe, the politics of climate change and the politics of migration are fraught with tension. The two converge over discussions about ‘climate refugees’. But what merit does the term ‘climate refugee’ have, and are there potential problems associated with it? This article pays attention to how racialised discourses underwrite the concept of climate refugees in ways that further exclude already marginalised populations. In place of ‘climate refugees’, it proposes ‘ecological displacement’ as a notion which stresses how and why people are displaced within or across borders. While, indeed, anthropogenic climate change is a real threat to the livelihoods of humans (among other species), it is not the only environmental driver of displacement. By using the term ‘ecology’, this article argues that we allow for a description which encompasses other potential displacement drivers beyond climate change, such as volcanic eruptions, landslides, and political violence. Citing ‘displacement’ makes the term available to populations who are displaced by damaged ecologies both within and across borders, in and outside of Europe. The notion of ‘ecological displacement’ and ‘ecologically displaced people’ tries to rehumanise those carrying the heaviest social and climate burdens on a burning planet.

Race and climate change: Towards anti-racist ecologies

“…Revisiting the extensive debate over the merits of the concept of ‘climate refugee’ (see Baldwin, 2022; Gonzalez, 2020), Hiraide argues that the term is too tainted by its pejorative political use, especially within Europe, where a febrile racist politics has been particularly resurgent in recent years. What is at stake in a name, Hiraide (2022: 2) argues, is demonstrated by the ways in which ‘both structural domination and bottom-up resistance to oppression also take place on the terrain of language’. In a second line of argument, Hiraide makes the case that reference to ‘climate’ in ‘climate refugee’ is too narrow to accommodate the range of environmental conditions, combined with political conditions, which instigate displacement in the first place.…”

“…Similarly, Hiraide proposes the concept of ecological displacement which might contribute to flattening the terrain between, for example, those displaced by floods in Europe and those displaced by ecological conditions in the Global South. Hiraide argues that expanding the category to ecologically displaced persons ‘as opposed to that of climate refugees, may also contribute to a de-racialisation of the notion of climate-related displacement’ (Hiraide, 2022: 10). Overall, the author draws attention to the potency of language in influencing material conditions of differential governance and exclusion, especially in the colonial domain of Europe and in the political context of far-right resurgence and ecological breakdown.…”

“…Other authors expose the pitfalls of climate action in the contemporary market episteme, questioning who this action serves (Collins, 2021; Perry, 2021). And some analyse the narratives around climate crisis and migration, illuminating the colonial silences and reproductions of race in various discursive fields (Hiraide, 2022; Reyes-Carranza, 2021). Finally, contributors also hold space for liberatory projects fusing climate action with anti-colonial and anti-imperial visions of better worlds (Ranawana, 2022; Tilley and Ajl, 2022).…”

A Multi-Hazard Climate, Displacement and Socio-Vulnerability Score for New York City

“…Understanding and quantifying the compounding effects of climate change, displacement and social vulnerability is crucial for the development and implementation of timely mitigation and adaptation policies [1][2][3][4]. Climate displacement has been characterized and defined in a variety of ways (e.g., [5][6][7]). Specifically, climate displacement can be defined as forced migration occurring entirely or partially from environmental events or the result of long-term changes in living patterns related to climate change.…”

Environmental Migration: German Experience of Regulation

“…Сотрудники Линчёпингского университета Дениз Бутрос, Вероника Броденберг, Анна Кайзер исследуют перспективы экологической миграции в ООН и ЕС через изучение официальных документов (Butros et al, 2021). Более концептуальными вопросами занимается Лидия Аяме Хираиде из Лондонского университета Голдсмит, которая рассматривает климатических беженцев с фокусом на ЕС (Hiraide, 2022). А в Вагенингенском университете было проведено исследование алармистского нарратива в общественных дебатах ЕС (Wennerhed, 2019) и др.…”