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CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS article

Front. Sociol.
Sec. Migration and Society
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1411683
This article is part of the Research Topic Mobility, Power and the (Re)production of Inequality and Injustice View all 5 articles

Contesting crisis narratives amidst climatic breakdown: Climate change, mobility, and state-centric approaches to migration

Provisionally accepted
  • Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Human mobility in the context of climate change is often identified as one of the largest future impacts of the climate crisis. It is often assumed by international institutions and national governments that climate change will drive mass migration movements across borders, leading to a prioritization of research that aims to predict future climate migration to aid border security and the creation of migration policies. This article focuses on knowledge production research concerning around climate-related mobility and how knowledge being produced upholds state-centric approaches to migration and migration management. It argues that by leaving state-centric approaches to migration unquestioned in the name of managing climate-related mobility, national governments and other institutions reproduce inequalities for those who are in the nexus of migration and climate change. This article considers alternative conceptions of mobility and climate change, including the climate mobilities paradigm and decolonial understandings of migration, and how these can shift our analytical focus to more holistic and decolonial understandings of migration.

    Keywords: climate change1, climate migration2, climate mobilities3, methodological nationalsim4, migration studies5

    Received: 03 Apr 2024; Accepted: 23 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sim-Sarka. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Kenna Sim-Sarka, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.