(Un)sustainable futures and the “vulnerable other”: Rethinking conditional inclusion in times of climate change

Abstract

“Vulnerable others”, such as forced migrants, are often perceived and presented as problematic subjects, in that they would not easily conform to western, privileged notions of environmental sustainability. Grounded on ethnographic insights from refugees and social workers in the North of Italy, this article explores imaginaries, institutional encounters, and everyday experiences of refugees’ participation in the so-called sustainable transition. In this context, an adequate care for domestic environments emerges as one of the main tenets in the mission of socializing migrant bodies to ideals of environmental responsibility. Attending to the inherent ambivalences of normative notions of care and eco-friendliness, I engage in a reflection on how new and diverse orientations towards “sustainability” are formed and enacted in everyday life. At the same time, I show how the growing public significance of sustainable development is transforming paradigms and landscapes of conditional inclusion.