Beyond migration: a critical review of climate change induced displacement

ABSTRACT

Scholarship on displacement caused by the effects of climate change generally approaches displacement as the involuntary movement of people. However, in this article, we argue that there are uncertainties surrounding Climate Change Induced Displacement (CCID) that are partly caused by discursive ambiguity around the notion of ‘displacement’ – a concept that remains poorly defined in the context of climate change research – and a conflation between displacement due to quick-onset disaster events and the cumulative pressure of living in an environment marked by a disrupted climate. Reflecting on the impacts of the Australian bushfires in 2019–20, we conceptualise CCID beyond migration as an event and a physical relocation across geographical space. Even fast-onset disaster events, such as the Australian bushfires, can dispossess and displace beyond the immediate threat of the fire front; but this displacement is not necessarily aligned with movement and migration, nor is it evenly proportioned across populations. Based on a review of existing literature on CCID, we identify three key tensions shaping scholarship on CCID: conceptualisation; distribution of risk and impact; and discursive framing. Together, we contend, these tensions highlight the imperative of striving for conceptual clarity and awareness of distributional inequities of risk and vulnerabilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• CCID
• displacement
• intersectionality
• migration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The question of voluntariness in migration is complex. Although forced and voluntary migration is ‘a continuum of experience, not a dichotomy’ (Erdal and Oeppen 2017, 981), the bracketing of migration as forced versus voluntary retains a hold of the debate both within and beyond academia. It is beyond the scope of this paper to go into this debate though it should be noted that our conceptualisation of displacement links strongly to notions of disempowerment and dispossession, with an emphasis on power and exogamous forces (e.g. climate) shaping experiences of place and home with the potential consequence of migration and/or displacement.

2. This paper contributes to the scholarship calling for greater attention to immobility in the face of social and environmental change (e.g. Lubkemann 2008; Zickgraf 2021), arguing specifically for our recognition of the experience of immobility as displacement.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The University of Newcastle’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Grant for Early Career Interdisciplinary Research.

Notes on contributors

Hedda Haugen Askland

Dr Hedda Haugen Askland is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences at The University of Newcastle. Her research centres on questions of exile and displacement, home, identity and belonging. She has explored these phenomena as they transpire within transnational, translocal and local contexts, working with refugees and asylum seekers from East Timor living in Australian metropolitan centres and mining affected rural communities in New South Wales. Hedda’s current research centres on the social and affective dimensions of climate change, mining and energy transition, with a concerted focus on the notions of place, place attachment and landscape transformation. Through ethnographic research, she investigates how mining, land use and land use change relate to place, power, home and exile, paying particular attention to the intersection of mythology, ontology and ecology in the establishment of people’s experiences of self and other.

Barrie Shannon

Dr Barrie Shannon is a lecturer and multidisciplinary researcher at the University of Newcastle. Their current work explores the experiences of trans youth at school, and the experiences of younger people with disability in residential aged care facilities.

Raymond Chiong

Dr Raymond Chiong is an Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His research focuses on using automated intelligent computing methods, including agent-based modelling, machine learning, and optimisation algorithms, to drive societal change and improve life quality. For example, he uses agent-based models to study the evolution of cooperation and trust, and climate-change induced movement; he uses a wide range of machine learning methods for prediction and data analytics, with applications in areas such as depression detection and suicide prevention; and he uses optimisation algorithms for sustainable production and transportation scheduling. He has published more than 200 papers in these areas, and attracted close to 2.8 million dollars in research and industry funding. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Systems and Information Technology, an Editor of Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, and an Associate Editor of Engineering Reports.

Natalie Lockart

Dr Natalie Lockart is an Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Engineering at The University of Newcastle who specialises in hydrological and water resource management modelling. She currently works as a Water Resources Engineer with Hunter Water.

Amy Maguire

Dr Amy Maguire is an Associate Professor of human rights and international law and the University of Newcastle Law School, Australia. She is the co-Director of the Centre for Law and Social Justice and Deputy Head of School (Research Training). Amy’s areas of specialisation include international human rights institutions, the death penalty, self-determination, First Nations rights, the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, and climate change and human rights. She is an active public and media commentator on human rights issues in Australia and internationally. Amy is also a featured author for The Conversation.

Jane Rich

Dr Jane Rich is a public health researcher with a background in human geography. As a human geographer, Jane has special interests in how psycho-social and environmental factors impact health and well-being. Jane has a breadth of knowledge and applied skills pertinent to mental health, workplace interventions, environmental and rural research. Jane has worked closely with health and workplace industries for many years, developing interventions and evaluations in the mining sector and defence force. Jane's interests in gender and health stemmed from her research with the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, where she completed her PhD. Her research drew on innovative methods to explore women's experiences of rural life and drought in Australia. Jane explored how human health and well-being is linked with the natural environment.

Justine Groizard

Justine Groizard is a PhD student in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, The University of Newcastle. She is an anthropologist who specialises in animal studies and multispecies relations. Her PhD explores the greyhound as a dominant symbol, interrogating the meaning and role of the greyhound in racing and rescue communities in New South Wales.