Climate Migration Beyond the Crisis Narrative: Immobility, Aspiration, and Uneven Agency - I

Some of the current framings of climate migration construct a crisis narrative focused on displacement and mass movement that risks obscuring the complex ways in which people respond to environmental stress. This session challenges this narrative by foregrounding discussions of (im)mobility aspiration and (im)mobility agency.

A significant proportion of those most exposed to climate risk do not migrate, and many do not want to. Place, culture, and community attachment are powerful forces that mainstream migration research often undervalues. Where movement is unwanted, treating immobility as a residual category misses the decision-making and vulnerability embedded in the negotiations of mobility. The session also interrogates the assumption that migration is a linear response to environmental change. Climate-related movement is frequently partial or temporary, often shaped by livelihood strategies and shifting environmental conditions. Finally, for many people, moving is not an aspiration but a last resort. At the same time, others wish to move but cannot due to structural barriers and inequalities.

We welcome contributions that examine (im)mobility aspirations and (im)mobility agency. Topics might include migration decision-making, place attachment, trapped populations, temporary and circular forms of movement, voluntary immobility, unequal access to migration, and structural barriers to mobility.