The Eroding American Dream: Home Ownership in the Changing Climate

• In Event: Borders, Bodies, and Security: Climate Change and Global Inequality

Abstract

Individuals in climate vulnerable areas confront growing climate risks. Though scholarship demonstrates that climate risk is unequally distributed, less is known about how individuals manage these risks in their daily lives. What happens when risks compete? What is prioritized when individuals’ aspirations are in conflict with growing climate risks? Drawing on 10 months of ethnographic field work and 45 in-depth interviews in coastal Hyde County, North Carolina, I find that undocumented residents pursue home ownership even though climate crisis undermines the benefits and elevates the risks. When undocumented immigrants reduce their status risks through home ownership, they in turn increase their climate risks and related adaptation burden. I identify four categories of everyday adaptations these individuals engage in to manage their climate risks: preparedness, routine maintenance, adapted livelihood activities, and daily routines. These findings demonstrate how rather than supporting wealth accumulation, in climate stressed contexts home ownership can perpetuate inequality.

Author

• Brianna Castro, Yale School of the Environment