The report of the conference Environmental Change and Migration in Historical Perspective, that took place in Munich from August 4-6, is available. Click here to download the report.
Scholars from around the world gathered at the Internationales Begegnungszentrum in Munich for a two-day conference to discuss the intersections between environmental change and migration from a historical perspective. Hosts and project leaders Uwe Lübken (RCC) and Franz Mauelshagen (KWI) emphasized that an increase of attention to climate change and migration has contributed to a growing body of literature. There is, however, a knowledge deficit in the empirical field, particularly noticeable in historical scholarship. The Climates of Migration team therefore organized a conference and invited multi-disciplinary paper proposals on the historical intersections between environmental change and migration.
Climate migration is often framed as a security issue in Western countries. Yet the notion that millions of “eco-refugees” will be fleeing the Global South for the – literally – safer shores of the developed countries probably tells us more about Western climatic paranoia than about the real problems involved. As recent literature on the topic has clearly shown, the issue is much more complex. Migration can be both a short-term and a long-term strategy to cope with environmental change. The distances migrants can cover span thousands of miles, or perhaps just a few hundred feet to relatives on higher and drier land. In some cases, if victims of environmental change lack the resources necessary to leave, migration may not even be an option. In other cases, can be forced to leave a hazardous area, or migrate more or less voluntarily. The evacuation of a certain region can be administered by the state in one case and can be spontaneous and unplanned in another. Finally, as far as causation is concerned, “environmental migration” is, of course, entangled into a web of many other factors, such as economic, political and ethnical factors. The conference brought scholars together that outlined the great diversity of migration patterns and took a first step in broadening the discussion from a historical perspective.
Photography by Suzanne Bruins
Climates of Migration 