‘Floods’ of migrants, flows of care : Between climate displacement and global care chains

Clark, Nigel Halcomb and Bettini, Giovanni (2017) ‘Floods’ of migrants, flows of care : Between climate displacement and global care chains. The Sociological Review, 65 (2 Supp). pp. 36-54. ISSN 0038-0261

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Abstract

This paper explores the growing interface between climate displacement and participation in `global care chains’ under conditions in which climate change is already impacting on lives and livelihoods – especially in the Global South. Early engagements with ‘climate migration’ tended towards alarmist predictions of mass migration, triggering proposals to `secure’ potential host nations against anticipated influxes. Recently, apparently more sober and measured approaches have emerged in which labour migration is viewed as contributing positively to climate `resilience’. We evaluate this policy turn in the light of everyday ‘ground level’ caring practices and adaptive responses to climate stress. The new approach, we argue, encourages more able and resourceful people from under-resourced, climate-vulnerable regions to join trans-local or transnational labour markets – which often equates with predominantly female care workers entering global care chains. Effectively, this means that those best equipped to provide care in places where it is most urgently needed end up providing care in relatively privileged, less climate-vulnerable places. Questioning the climate justice implications of this mobilization against the gradient of vulnerability, we offer suggestions about how climate policy could actually support caring practices in the places where ordinary people struggle at the sharp edge of global climate change.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
The Sociological Review
Additional Information:
The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Sociological Review, 65 (Suppl 2), 2017, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Sociological Review page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/sor on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300
Subjects:
?? climate changeclimate displacementglobal care chainsmigrationadaptationclimate justiceresiliencesocial sciences(all)sociology and political sciencediscipline-based research ??
ID Code:
86358
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
01 Jun 2017 12:20
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
21 Mar 2024 00:44