Session 14.2

Academic and media discourses of climate mobility have largely emphasized permanent and long-distance migration associated with climate change stressors and hazards, with little attention to more localized and short-term forms of mobility or micro-mobility. In this study, we sought to deepen understanding of the wider spectrum of mobility responses to climate-related hazards by investigating how micro-mobilities are used as adaptation pathways among small holder riparian rice farmers facing saltwater intrusion in two communities in the North Bank Region of The Gambia.  The analysis draws on extensive qualitative data collection, including interviews with 20 rice farmers and 4 agriculture officials, two community workshops, and participant observation. The findings demonstrate that the intensification of the saltwater hazard is a primary driver of changing mobility practices. However, rather than the “out-migration” or “displacement” that has been the core research concern related to climate mobility, this research demonstrates the growing frequency of micro-mobility—including short-term and seasonal movements—which has in turn enabled access to more reliable livelihood opportunities essential for the farmers’ adaptation. Though these forms of mobility are dynamic, extending livelihoods in new directions, they are also socially differentiated in that mobility and immobility reflect economic, cultural and spatial contours of rural society.

This two-part presentation critically examines mobility in relation to climate and environmental change, focusing on both pre-migration and post-migration contexts. I first present preliminary data from a case study conducted in the Philippines among coastal communities at risk of being uprooted by coastal erosion during typhoon seasons, which are becoming increasingly intense due to climate change. From an apolitical perspective, the risks of future displacement of this community highlights climate risks and the need for action. However, field data show that the situation is much more complex and that climate factors are only one part of the puzzle, while political and economic decisions based on development strategies play a leading role in erosion and the risk of displacement. Overall, I argue against apolitical and ahistorical views of climate and environmental migration. Such approaches can lead to simplistic conclusions that mask the real causes of displacement and limit our understanding of potential solutions. Similarly, this case study demonstrates that climate alone is rarely the sole cause of migration and that treating it as exceptional oversimplifies the complex drivers of human mobility.

In the second part of the presentation, I explain how these arguments also apply to the post-migration stage. I demonstrate that host countries such as Canada, especially health and social services, should consider the lived experience of climate change in incoming migrants, even if climate change was not the direct or sole cause of their migration, and legal systems provide no specific protection or support for people who migrated in that context. Put differently, migration is always multifaceted, and climate change is a context within which people migrate, as well as an amplifier of other factors. Treating it as a context of migration and as an amplifier of other mobility factors, rather than as an exclusive or exceptional cause, allows for more flexible policy action. To illustrate, I present a project from the Centre of Expertise on the Physical and Mental Health of Refugees and Asylum Seekers (CERDA), located in Quebec, Canada. As an advisor to the Ministry of Health and Social Services of Quebec, CERDA leads in supporting health professionals working with refugees and asylum seekers. The CERDA acknowledges that the refugee status alone may not reflect the role of climate in migration, but still emphasizes adapting services to this reality, to ensure that health and social services offered to forced migrants are climate-inclusive. As such, an ongoing project of the CERDA aims to train health professionals working with refugees and asylum seekers so that their interventions are better adapted to the climate change experiences their patients may have faced during their migration.

Coming soon.