Environmental Migration in the Face of Emerging Risks : Historical Case Studies, New Paradigms and Future Directions

This book will provide a space for new and emergent research in environmental migration, particularly in the context of a world beginning to emerge from the grip of a debilitating public health crisis that kept many firmly rooted in place while displacing others internationally. With famines, vast wildfires, droughts, and record heatwaves uprooting human settlements internationally, research on migration in the face of emerging risks is all the more urgent. As Balsari, Dresser, & Leaning point out, “the wall-building, xenophobic, and insular” platforms of some global powers in their immigration and asylum policies, and the ever-increasing stresses placed on the natural world that continue to make sites of human settlement less and less hospitable, make research on this topic both very timely and much needed. This book will include numerous case studies, historical analyses, projections, models, and recommendations for both policy and future research directions. Contributions are drawn from academics and practitioners in this fertile interdisciplinary field of academic inquiry, and each one focuses on the intersection of population and environment studies, history, geography, law, diaspora studies, economics, public health, and sociology. This book is composed of five clear sections. The introductory section includes one chapter that presents an overview of the current landscape, the scope and objectives of the book, as well as its specific approach and the various themes. The concluding section is composed of one chapter that presents a global map of recent innovations drawing together some of the core themes discussed throughout the book. The concluding chapter synthesizes the challenges and opportunities presented, and the possible future directions that researchers, practitioners, and regulators could and should move towards. Acknowledgments 5 Contents 6 Notes on Contributors 8 List of Figures 14 List of Tables 15 Part I Introduction 16 1 Migration in the Face of Emerging Risks: An Introduction 17 Introduction 17 Overview of Content 19 Part I: Patterns and Legacies—Historical Case Studies 19 Part II: Methodological Interventions and Models 20 Part III: Risk and Vulnerability: Intersecting Migration Studies 21 References 22 Part II Patterns and Legacies: Historical Case Studies 23 2 Infusing the Globe: Yerba Mate, Polish Immigration, and Creolization in Southern Brazil (c.1870–1920) 24 Introduction 24 From Eastern Europe to Southern Brazil 26 Yerba Mate and the Caboclização of Polish Immigrants 31 Conclusion 36 Sources 38 3 Coffee Plantations and Irish Migration to Santiago de Cuba: A Historical Case Study of Radical Environmental Transformation 41 Introduction 41 From Irish Migrants to Cuban-Creole Landowners and Planters 42 Conclusion 55 Archival Sources 56 Part III Methodological Interventions and Models 60 4 The Need for Better Data: Climate-Induced Mobility, Urbanization, and Procedural Injustices in Zambia 61 Introduction 61 Three Problems of Datasets for Internal Climate-Induced Mobility 62 Temporal Limitation of Census Data 62 Spatial Limitation of Census Data 64 Socio-Economic Limitations 66 Datasets and Internal Migration in Zambia 67 Climate-Induced Mobility in Zambia 68 Limitations in Current Data Collection Methods in Zambia 69 Poor Population Monitoring of Informal Settlements 70 Improving Datasets on Internal Migration with a Procedural Justice Approach 71 Climate or Economic Migration? 71 Technical Implications of Standardization for Census Methods on Migration 73 Financial and Political Implications of Standardization for Census Methods on Migration 74 Conclusion 75 References 76 5 Leveraging Labor Migration and Migrant Remittances in Nepal 86 Introduction 86 Relationship with Agriculture, Environmental Migration, and Labor Migration 87 Benefits of Migration 89 Drawbacks of Migration 90 Discouraged Growth of the Local Economy 91 Workplace Casualties and Exploitations 92 Uncertainty of Foreign Employment 92 Policies and Programs in Migrant Remittance Management 94 Ways Forward 98 Conclusion 101 References 102 6 The Impact of Sea-Level Rise on Existing Patterns of Migration 108 Introduction 108 Exposure and Vulnerability 111 Pre-Inundation Impacts of Sea-Level Rise 112 Extreme Sea-Level Events 113 Erosion 113 Flooding 114 Salinization 115 Pre-Existing Drivers of Migration and Patterns of Population Mobility 115 Thresholds—And the Limits of Historic Analogy 119 Modeling Complex Systems of Population Mobility 120 Conclusion 121 References 122 Part IV Risk and Vulnerability: Intersecting Migration Studies 128 7 Climate Migration and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 129 Introduction 129 Brief Introduction to Disability and the Human Rights Model 131 Impact of Climate Change and Other Environmental Factors on Persons with Disabilities 131 Literature Related to Climate Migration and Persons with Disabilities 133 Good Practices 137 Recommendations 139 References 141 8 Compounding Risks and Increased Vulnerabilities: Climate Change, Conflict, and Mobility in East Africa 144 Introduction 144 Study Area 145 The Effects of Climatic Change on Human Mobility 146 Characterizing Human Mobility in East Africa 149 Complex and Compounding Vulnerability in Somalia 150 Interventions 152 Conclusion 154 References 155 9 Building a Critical, Place-Based Approach to Climate Displacement: A Future Agenda for Research, Planning, and Practice 161 Introduction 161 Place Attachment & Place Disruption in Climate Displacement 163 Contesting & Resisting Planned Displacement with Place-Based Community Action & Science: The Case of Fairbourne, Wales 166 Pursuing Critical Place-Based Planning for Climate Displacement 170 Critical Climate Displacement Research: Multidisciplinary, Multi-Scalar, and Situated 171 Intersectionality as a Tool for Critical Climate Displacement Planning 173 Conclusion 175 References 177 Index 184