Conceptualizing displacement: the importance of coercion

Ali, Ali

doi:10.1080/1369183x.2022.2101440

Cited by 11 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In contrast to the treatment of refugees in international law, internal displacement is more broadly conceptualized, with any persecutory requirement discarded, and explicit recognition of environmental‐induced displacement included in its non‐exhaustive list of displacement causes. A key priority for legal scholars interested in migration studies should be the development of appropriate legal protections for immobile persons in the context of climate change, thus taking seriously the reality that immobility, like mobility, can be forced (Ali, 2022; Carling, 2002). Due attention must be given to the human dynamics, in particular the human rights implications of immobility.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Staying put in an era of climate change: The geographies, legalities, and public health implications of immobility

Robins,

Saddington,

Boyd‐Macmillan

et al. 2024

WIREs Climate Change

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In response to the proliferation of “climate migration” discourses, researchers are exploring how climate related hazards affect immobile populations. This paper contributes to the conceptualization of “environmental immobility.” Researchers from geography, public health, psychology, and law explore the climate change immobility nexus via three themes: (1) risk; (2) (mal)adaptation; and (3) resilience, protection, and vulnerability. The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss the key concepts and rationale for scholars and policymakers who consider both “voluntary” and “involuntary” immobility when researching and responding to the effects of climate change on human movement. The need is critical, as immobility is often underacknowledged as a desirable, pro‐active, and practical response to environmental change, preventing large populations from being considered and included in policy, consultation, and support processes.This article is categorized under: Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Values‐Based Approach to Vulnerability and Adaptation Trans‐disciplinary Perspectives > National Reviews Integrated Assessment of Climate Change > Assessing Climate Change in the Context of Other Issues

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Staying put in an era of climate change: The geographies, legalities, and public health implications of immobility

Robins,

Saddington,

Boyd‐Macmillan

et al. 2024

WIREs Climate Change

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“…People were living in intensifying constraint, their choices and their capacity for action were being restricted in ways evidencing structural coercion. This was indicative of the displacement process, something I had researched in contexts of armed conflict, aspects of which I have conceptualized at greater length elsewhere ( Ali 2023 ). It became increasingly clear that the population was experiencing the pressures of displacement, but those who might wish to leave, or to send a member of their household abroad, had their capabilities severely diminished not only by economic contraction, but by intentional government inertia, including its refusal to implement capital control laws which were partly to blame for banks denying people access to their savings until a time when they had become worthless.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…For Lebanon’s population, the clock of displacement has started ticking; their lives have been disrupted in ways leaving them worse off in relation to a range of baselines in ways that produce displacement ( Ali 2023 ). The economic collapse constrained people’s ability to generate income, and has stripped the banked half of the population of their assets.…”

Section: Systemic Financial Collapsementioning

confidence: 99%

“…A key argument of the article is that even if emigration increases, the analysis in the field should not focus only on those who leave, the conventional event-centred approach which speaks of displacement and forced migration interchangeably and therefore imprecisely. Rather, our attention should also focus on the acute transformations in Lebanon affecting those who remain, and which constitute displacement in place: that is, coercive processes that disrupt valued ways of living and functioning ( Ali 2020 , 2023 ) which begin before people leave their homes ( Celestina 2016 ; Vaz-Jones 2018 ). The clock of displacement starts ticking, so to speak, before people leave ( Celestina 2016 ), meaning before the 2019 collapse began, when warnings of looming financial crises were sounded ( Alami 2018 , Baumann 2019 ), if not earlier.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Displacement in Place and the Financial Crisis in Lebanon

Ali

2023

Journal of Refugee Studies

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Displacement is underway in Lebanon after financial collapse, but not as events of migration, rather, as processual disruption to people’s lives that begins in place, preceding the potential outcome of forced migration. Financial collapse has shifted the population into extremes of constraint, dispossessing them of assets needed to live in valued ways. Widely circulated claims of an exodus are premature. Historic mass emigration from Lebanon occurred in times of capital availability whilst today’s financial collapse denies most people of the capital needed to emigrate. Migration remains limited to the few with social and cultural capital unaffected by the crisis. This article was prompted by the author’s observations of financial collapse whilst living in Lebanon in 2020 and long-standing engagement with the country. Regardless of whether mass emigration occurs, perhaps after the economy’s recapitalization, the displacement process already underway warrants attention from refugee and forced migration studies.

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“…However, while we point to the existence of strategies and attempts to control and coerce (im)mobility, this is not to say that individuals living in civil war settings necessarily comply with these. They can also react with evasion and resistance, as a growing literature on agency in displacement shows (Ali 2022;Etzold and Fechter 2022).…”

Section: Scipost Chemistry Submissionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobility control as state-making in civil war: Forcing exit, selective return and strategic laissez-faire

Fröhlich

Müller‐Funk

2023

Mig. Pol.

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This paper addresses the question of how different actors attempt to control mobility during civil war, and how mobility control and processes of state-making interact in such settings. Mobility in civil wars is often considered a political act by the various actors involved: Leaving the country can be perceived as an act of opposition, as can moving between territories which are controlled by different, opposing factions. Drawing on literature on strategic displacement and migration politics and combining this with empirical insights from the ongoing wars in Libya and Syria, the paper identifies three mechanisms of mobility control in civil war settings: forcing exit, selective return as a form of expulsion, and strategic laissez-faire as the intentional absence of regulation regarding displacement and return. The analysis reveals that all three mechanisms are employed by state actor(s), rebels, and militias, and can be understood as elements of a new (post)war order that includes some citizens while excluding others depending on perceptions of political threats. We interpret the three mechanisms as ways in which actors in civil war settings attempt to manipulate a country’s demography in their own favour in a process of state-making. The paper is based on fieldwork conducted between 2018 and 2021 in Syria, Lebanon, Libya, and Tunisia.

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Conceptualizing displacement: the importance of coercion

Cited by 11 publications

References 30 publications

Staying put in an era of climate change: The geographies, legalities, and public health implications of immobility

Staying put in an era of climate change: The geographies, legalities, and public health implications of immobility

Displacement in Place and the Financial Crisis in Lebanon

Mobility control as state-making in civil war: Forcing exit, selective return and strategic laissez-faire

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