Theorizing (im)mobility in the face of environmental change

Abstract

The study of the relationship between environmental change and human mobility has largely focused on the movement of people as it is driven by environmental change with little regard for those who stay when faced with many of the same adverse conditions. An emerging body of work recognizes and seeks to understand the lack of migration, or immobility, in the contexts of environmental and climatic change, primarily through the notion of “trapped populations.” Theoretically, however, our understandings of immobility in relation to environmental change are underdeveloped and oversimplified, and do not do justice to the diversity, dynamism, or unevenness of (im)mobilities. In order to advance knowledge, this paper connects knowledge from environmental migration studies to immobility in broader migration research. Although there is no silver theoretical bullet, it explores the strengths and weaknesses of three frameworks in explaining and understanding (im)mobility decision-making, patterns, and consequences: (1) the New Economics of Labour Migration; (2) the aspirations-(cap)abilities framework; and (3) the mobilities paradigm. In order to break away from both sedentary and mobility biases, it asserts that scholars should theorize and analyze the entire mobility spectrum in the face of environmental change, rather than considering immobility as a separate outcome.

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