Talk summary:

Climate-related migrations are often portrayed as either a failure to adapt or a successful adaptation strategy, and narratives of ‘successful’ adaptation tend to prioritise economic outcomes (e.g., labour and livelihood sustenance). While not discounting the significance of economic markers, what often gets lost in discussions of adaptive climate migration is the unquantifiable cost of such coping and survival strategies. Drawing from migrations within Ghana, this presentation shares the voices of rural dwellers regarding their experiences of ‘adaptive’ climate migration. I show how the loss of family and community, emotional burden of adjusting to new spaces in sending and receiving areas, and the loss of ancestral ties, impact climate-affected mobile communities. I highlight the importance of going beyond economic outcomes as markers of successful adaptive migration, to consider more fully the quality of life and wellbeing of individuals and communities.

Bio:

I am an interdisciplinary climate-migration scholar, and my research and teaching are at the intersections of gender, climate change, migration, health and development equity.

My teaching focuses on how gendered structures, geopolitical and sociocultural relations, climate change and ongoing development practices affect the lives of migrants, non-migrants and return-migrants in diverse rural and urban contexts, and how to create inclusive opportunities for these groups. Similarly, my research uses a gendered lens to examine how diversely situated individuals and groups are affected by climate change, development processes, health inequalities and migration in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and other parts of the world. I am particularly interested in learning about the experiences of rural dwellers, women and those whose livelihoods depend on environmental/natural resources (e.g., farmers). I am also interested in understanding how factors such as gender, climate-vulnerability and migration status may act as social determinants of health.