The uneven geography of research on "environmental migration"
| Résumé |
Climate change and environmental hazards affect the entire world,
but their interactions with—and consequences on—human migration are
unevenly distributed geographically. Research on climate and
migration have their own geographies which do not necessarily
coincide. This paper critically confronts these two geographies by
presenting the first detailed mapping of research in the field of
environmentally induced migration. After a brief review of the
geography of research on climate change, the paper presents an
overview of nearly 50 years of case studies on the basis of CliMig,
a bibliographic database of 1193 scientific papers and books on
climate/environmental change and migration, among them 463
empirical case studies. We analyze the locations of these case
studies, the academic affiliations of their researchers, and the
origin of their funding. Mapping the locations of case studies
worldwide points toward blind spots in the research and identifies
“overstudied” areas. We describe the methodologies used in the
studies and present a typology of environmental hazards. Our
results show that research on environmental migration is mainly
done in countries of the Global South, whereas climate science
research in general is focused on countries of the Global North. We
contend that the peculiar geography of environmental migration
cannot be explained solely by the uneven vulnerability of southern
populations to the environment. It must also be understood through
the lens of post-colonial and securitization studies as the result
of a framing of “environmental refugees” (and refugees in general)
as an intrinsically “southern problem” and as a security risk for
the North. This paper is an original contribution to the literature
on the North-South divide in scientific research and will help to
outline future directions of investigation. |
| Mots-clés |
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| Citation | Piguet, E. (2018). The uneven geography of research on "environmental migration". Population and Environment, 39(4), 357-383. |
| Type | Article de périodique (Anglais) |
| Date de publication | 19-5-2018 |
| Nom du périodique | Population and Environment |
| Volume | 39 |
| Numéro | 4 |
| Pages | 357-383 |
| URL | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11111-018-0296-4 |
| Liée au projet | CliMig |