Keeping People in Place: Political Factors of (Im)mobility and Climate Change

Abstract

While those 'trapped' or who choose to stay in areas affected by climate change represent a substantial policy issue, there only a small amount of empirical work specifically targeting such populations. The scant attention that is afforded to immobility often emphasizes financial constraints as factors driving (involuntary) immobility. As an essential part of the mobility spectrum, the complexity of immobility in crisis, including its political dimensions, warrants thorough investigation. In response to these gaps, this contribution locates environmental immobility within mobilities studies, its conceptual complexities, and, finally, illustrates the importance of political factors in shaping (im)mobilities. The findings are based on semi-structured interviews conducted in two developing countries experiencing the impacts of climate change. We delve into the socio-cultural and economic nature of (im)mobilities as they interact with political forces, specifically by exploring international bilateral agreements (Senegal) and a relocation program (Vietnam). In political spaces that are dominated by a desire to limit human mobility and (re)produce stasis, we challenge traditional dichotomies between mobile/immobile and sedentary/migration polices by underlining how policy interventions can simultaneously promote mobility and immobility, demonstrating complex co-existing mobilities. Keeping people in place can, in fact, mean allowing the very same people to move.

A meta-analysis of country-level studies on environmental change and migration

“…In the same spirit, there is a need to better understand and conceptualize migration as an adaptation strategy to environmental hazards as well as to define what constitutes successful migration and adaptation for whom 80 . A stronger focus on agency would help identify cultural and psychosocial factors underlying migration decisions beyond the macro-level variables considered in this study [81][82][83] . Migration is only one of many potential responses to environmental stress and has to be analyzed against the background of other adaptation strategies, which can complement or substitute migration [84][85] .…”

When rebuilding no longer means recovery: the stress of staying put after Hurricane Sandy

“…Joining this may be feelings of injustice or betrayal, “a loss of trust in the social institutions that are supposed to protect and secure people and their place in society” (Askland and Bunn 2018 , p. 21). Receiving government support for managed retreat, or to enable voluntary immobility, may entail leaving or transforming a physical place but sustaining one’s place in a more expansive sense—for instance, through buyouts, which provide value for a primary asset, one’s house, otherwise at risk, or via other policies that support movement as a means to stability, enabling people to remain nearby for longer, at lesser risk (Zickgraf 2019 ).…”

“…Concern for “trapped populations,” people who might prefer to move but confront obstacles to doing so (Black and Collyer 2014 ), joins calls to recognize and plan for the “voluntary immobility” of those who resist relocation as a threat to sovereignty, livelihoods, or cultural survival (Farbotko et al 2020 ). Scholars in the emerging climate (im)mobilities field stress that moving and staying put should be understood as interrelated and not mutually exclusive; policies may facilitate both at once, and examining people’s experiences often reveals a complex blend of movement and stasis (Zickgraf 2019 ).…”

Emerging research methods in environmental displacement and forced migration research

“…(2011) suggested that the ongoing debates over this distinction are not necessary, attempting to move beyond these past divisions. New research also focuses on the inability to migrate and also the desire for some to want to stay in place regardless of environmental risks (see McLamen and Gemenne, 2018; Zickraf, 2019) For a review of related subthemes in human‐environment geography, including how migration affects the environment, how environment impacts migration, how migration produces uneven environmental harms and benefits, and how environmental displacement and migration are intertwined, see Jokisch et al. (2019).…”