The population impact of climate disasters: Mobility and In-mobility in New Mexico and North Carolina

• In Event: Environmental Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 6: Migration, Mobility, and Retreat

Abstract

Migration scholars are beginning to recognize the connection between population movements and climate disasters. While in general studies expect disasters to lead to population mobility that is not necessarily the case. In this paper, I elaborate on the notion that disasters are not just natural but socially produced and as a result can lead to both mobility and in-mobility. Using qualitative data from fieldwork in New Mexico and North Carolina -- after wildfires and floods, I show that rather than a single event, disasters extend and cascade in accordance to the same institutional processes that produce them. I also show how population responses are related to these same institutional forces, personal ties and feelings of belonging, alongside the physical and environmental events and changes that occur as part of the disaster. As applied to New Mexico and North Carolina, the analysis shows the organized patterns of variable migration responses to climate disasters.

Author

• Daniel Jenks, University of Pennsylvania