300670 Migration and Mobility in Times of Climate Crisis (einsemestrig) (S) (SoSe 2023)

It is unproductive to speak of climate migrants or climate refugees because climate change—or climate degradation viz. climate destruction, as it is called here—is rarely the sole or exclusive mover of migration. As a rule, there are usually multiple causes, among them economic, political, cultural, and ecological factors. The obvious exceptions to this empirical finding are rapid-onset disaster situations, such as earthquakes, nuclear meltdowns, or volcano eruptions. How ecological factors interact with other migration drivers is, however, often unclear. In other words, most research on migration and climate degradation does not sufficiently contextualize ecological factors interacting with the heterogeneities in the social world, such as gender, ethnicity, age, class, or religion. While we already know a lot about the unequal production of climate degradation, we know less about the mechanisms resulting in migration and the politics around it.
This research training class takes into account the climate crisis and environmental destruction as a context in which to design projects exploring the patterns of mobility and migration. Individual or collective student projects on all aspects relevant to the understanding of the climate crisis, human mobility and social inequalities are welcome. The methodological orientation is open: quantitative, qualitative and/or mixed methods.

Bibliography

Faist, Thomas (2020). Getting out of the Climate Migration Ghetto: Understanding Climate Degradation and Migration Processes of Social Inequalities. International Migration 58(6): 247-253. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12793 [Titel anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] (open access publication)