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What’s in a Name: Social Vulnerabilities and the Refugee Controversy in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina
Abstract
Abundant literature on disasters has shown that a natural hazard does not always result in a disaster. It only does so when the hazard hits in a context of social vulnerability (Oliver-Smith and Hoffman, 2002). The case of hurricane Katrina provides an example particularly showing this interaction between natural hazards and social vulnerabilities.KeywordsSocial VulnerabilityBaton RougeSocial UnrestEvacuation OrderKaiser Family FoundationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
... the USA (Gemenne, 2010).6 Agnew (2012) has argued that some groups are "more exposed" to the consequence of climate change because they live in the areas of high environmental risk (e.g. ...
... However, not all parts of the population in developed countries show equal environmental resilience. In case of Katrina, a hurricane that struck New Orleans in 2005, the system of dykes and flood protection failed (Gemenne, 2010). The flooded areas mostly affected the lower parts of the delta, inhabited largely by an Afro-American population of a lower socio-economic status. ...
Political ecology seeks explanations and interpretations of the phenomena resulting from the human-nature interaction, such as conflicts over resources, which appreciate both the ecological processes and the political power struggles. Aspects of political ecology rooted in commons research, materialism, feminist development critiques, environmental history, post-colonial studies and science and technology studies are reflected in different chapters of this volume.
... the USA (Gemenne, 2010).6 Agnew (2012) has argued that some groups are "more exposed" to the consequence of climate change because they live in the areas of high environmental risk (e.g. ...
... However, not all parts of the population in developed countries show equal environmental resilience. In case of Katrina, a hurricane that struck New Orleans in 2005, the system of dykes and flood protection failed (Gemenne, 2010). The flooded areas mostly affected the lower parts of the delta, inhabited largely by an Afro-American population of a lower socio-economic status. ...
... On the one hand, those who have strategies (and the means) in place reduce the impacts of the environmental degradation or cope locally with it, thus are "voluntarily immobile" (Flavell et al., 2020: 46). At the same time, many others do not have the ability, willingness and means to leave in the face of an impending or potential hazard, not even as a last-resort-who are the so-called "trapped populations" or involuntarily immobile (Adams, 2016;Black & Collyer, 2014;Gemenne, 2010;Flavell et al., 2020: 46;Foresight, 2011). Mobility and immobility choices might even differ or be coordinated by different individuals within the same household, differing individualistically based on different human capital resources and motivations or, on the contrary, coordinated as part of collective household strategies to minimise risks or maximise opportunities, including in the aftermath of major disasters. ...
This paper outlines recent data collection tools and methodologies that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been using in order to gather information on human mobility as influenced by environmental factors and their impacts. It looks at alternative ways for collecting and analysing data in the face of methodological challenges related to the multicausality of movements, the voluntary/involuntary continuum in human (im)mobility decisions in the context of environmental and climate change, and the policy and epistemological imperative from viewing migration as an adaptation strategy. The paper finds that certain data collection approaches can be quickly deployed in rapid‐onset disasters as well as applied in contexts of gradual, slow‐onset environmental change to provide information useful for operational responses to immediate crises and/or for developing policies in response. Some of the tools can be useful in both contexts and may support both immediate and long‐term operational, policy and research objectives.
... Others yet may resist evacuation to ensure that their property will be protected or may stay behind to take care of others. Regardless of the reason for their immobility, people staying behind are often among the most vulnerable, as shown in hurricane Katrina (Gemenne, 2010), cyclone Pam (Baker et al., 2017) or floods in Japan (IDMC, 2019). Disaster management systems, therefore, make provisions to educate the public about early warnings and evacuation procedures and support the movement of people with limited mobility. ...
“Displacement risk” is increasingly central to global policy discourse on disaster risk reduction (DRR), despite its vague formulation and inconsistent use. Different understandings of displacement, its complex relationship with vulnerability, and its ambiguous role as a necessary survival strategy for people in harm's way that also creates or exacerbates risk, hinder its clear conceptualization. This limits the clarity and value of recommendations to “reduce displacement risk” for DRR. The explicit consideration of two complementary aspects of risk related to displacement could support more comprehensive, actionable discourses: (1) the “risk stemming from displacement”, that is, any negative impact people might experience due to displacement, and (2) the “risk of remaining displaced”, that is, of people being displaced for a long time. Consideration of these aspects would allow to better include protection and durable solution perspectives within DRR, integrate displacement in disaster risk and loss assessments and add value to existing DRR efforts.
... Many large-scale data collection efforts on population movements take place primarily or exclusively in locations of transit and destination, and do not provide the multi-sited approach that would be required to also assess the situation of people staying behind. Moreover, immobility takes place along a continuum of forced and voluntary choices: on the one hand, those who have effective strategies in place to reduce impacts or cope locally and do not need or want to move; on the other, those who do not have the means to leave (so-called "trapped populations") in the face of an impending or potential hazard, not even as a last-resort measure (Black and Collyer, 2014;Gemenne, 2010). Mobility and immobility might even be adopted simultaneously by different individuals within the same household as a way to minimize risks or maximize opportunities, including in the aftermath of major disasters (IDMC, 2017). ...
The debate around the mobility impacts of disasters and environmental change has gained increasing momentum over the last years. While the topic is a key concern for policymakers, researchers and the general public, however, key gaps remain in our understanding and knowledge of the issue - notably on triggering factors of movements, categories of people moving and impacts of population movements. The paper takes stocks of issues still hindering a more informed discourse and policy-making, and attempts to propose a few leads for improved data collection.
... All the relevant authorities were then gathered for several days, but the probability of occurrence of such a hurricane had not been taken seriously, leading to the Katrina event to turn into disaster (Mancebo 2006), including serious social consequences. The most disadvantaged social classes were trapped in the city, and some went to shelters where they had to deal with chaotic situations (Cutter 2006, Gemenne 2010. These immense and overcrowded evacuation centres were indeed lacking stocks of food or water, e.g., a situation that lasted several days and resulted in extreme tensions accompanied by a sharp increase in the crime rate (rapes, for example). ...
This work organizes into a coherent storyline four intertwined dimensions of the study of societal vulnerability to climate change: (i) the Trajectory of Vulnerability (ToV) approach; (ii) the minimization of the risk of maladaptation and the identification of inescapable solutions to adaptation; (iii) the development of chain of impacts and of risks of impact scenarios; and (iv) the adaptation pathways approach. The aim of this work is to develop, in a both clear and concise way, a theory of adaptation to climate change to guide future research.
... Developing an original methodology, 8 the work by Myers (Myers 2002(Myers , 1997(Myers , 1993Myers and Kent 1995) estimates that the number of climate migrants could be between 150 and 212 million in 2050. 9 It does however present the drawback of not considering region-specific aspects (Gemenne 2011 and While they have served to raise awareness among global actors and decisionmakers, estimates and projections of the number of displaced persons lack consensus, and the methods employed (Gemenne 2010) to produce estimates are far from being harmonized (Afifi 2011;Piguet 2010). Many authors see the figures produced by research as either artificially inflated and alarmist, or minimal and approximative (for a summary, see Kolmannskog 2008). ...
Environmental migration is an issue subject to a multitude of competing
terminology. Its construction as a “public problem” at the international level has
stabilized around the issue of climate change. Focusing attention on renewed
efforts to understand this complex phenomenon, as well as the diversity of
theoretical approaches and policies that have been formulated around it, this
article highlights the need for a shift in the analytical framework: to consider
adaptation projects as “actants” that produce their own political effects in fragile
contexts of action, which would allow us to develop institutional responses more
in tune with the needs and expectations of vulnerable populations. The example
of the Sahel is used to illustrate this.
... 7 After Hurricane Katrina, more than 70 000 socially vulnerable residents of New Orleans were stranded in flooded neighborhoods for days, unable to access evacuation shelter facilities and other response and recovery resources. 8 Inability to evacuate an impending storm has been shown to result in excess deaths from both direct causes, including drowning, trauma, and carbon monoxide poisoning, and indirectly through complications associated with exacerbation of chronic conditions such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease. [9][10][11] The health impacts of disasters on socially vulnerable populations are often greater in part due to their higher disaster-associated risks and expanded care needs. ...
Background:
Socially vulnerable residents of US Gulf Coast counties have higher exposure to physical hazards and disaster-associated risks. Evacuation is one way to mitigate the consequences of disaster exposure among socially vulnerable populations. However, it is unknown whether existing evacuation shelter capacity and locations in designated hurricane evacuation zones of Texas are adequate to accommodate persons with housing and transportation needs. This study estimated the evacuation shelter deficit arising from demand from socially vulnerable residents of the Houston-Galveston area.
Methods:
Spatial statistical methods including Global Moran's I and Getis-Ord (Gi*) were used to measure spatial autocorrelation and identify census tracts in the study area with high (hot spots) and low (cold spots) social vulnerability in both housing and transportation domains. The shelter deficit in each county within the study area was estimated as well as for the entire Houston-Galveston Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Results:
Designated evacuation zones in the Houston-Galveston area have an overall shelter deficit of 163 317 persons. Shelters in the area can only accommodate 36% of evacuees with significant housing and transportation needs, while 3 of 4 counties had county-specific evacuation shelter deficits. The highest deficits were in Harris County, where Houston is located, and the lowest were in Matagorda County, a rural county southwest of Harris County.
Conclusion:
Emergency managers and other authorities should consider data related to demand from socially vulnerable residents for public shelters during disasters and increase shelter capacity in certain locations to address evacuation shelter shortage for vulnerable persons in designated evacuation zones of Texas.
... Various escalation points can be noted, connected with failure to evacuate, the unsuitability of immediate shelter (the Superdome, which lost part of its roof), the physical failure of levees, and so on. Cascading consequences include questions of forced migration, racism, and equity in the recovery process (Angel et al. 2012, Gemenne 2010. The ...
This paper presents a magnitude scale for cascading incidents, crises and disasters. The scale is listed, described and discussed in terms of its possible applications. A graphic form is presented as well as a tabular one. Examples are discussed in order to illustrate the different levels of the scale. The need for the scale is described in relation to evolving trends in research on cascading disasters, especially in terms of the cross-sector implications of critical infrastructure failure. By facilitating comparison between events, the scale may be able to help planners transfer knowledge and lessons from one cascading disaster to another, or to a situation in which one is likely. Future development of the scale might involve creating a quantitative means of applying it, connecting it to other scales designed to measure or assess disaster impacts and using it to understand the broader implications of infrastructure management decisions.
... • Prolonged environmental stress that undermines rural livelihoods, e.g., through repeated droughts ); • Rapid onset disasters and related displacement, e.g., after floods and landslides. Gemenne 2010); • Permanently uninhabitable land, e.g., as a result of sea level rise (Gemenne 2011a, b, c;Warner et al. 2009) calling for planned relocation. ...
This article provides a review of recent scientific literature on social vulnerability to climate change, aiming to determine which social and demographic groups, across a wide range of geographical locations, are the most vulnerable to climate change impacts within four well-being dimensions: health, safety, food security, and displacement. We analyze how vulnerability changes over time and ask whether there is evidence of critical thresholds beyond which social vulnerability drastically changes. The review finds that climate change is expected to exacerbate current vulnerabilities and inequalities. The findings confirm concerns about climate justice, especially its intergenerational dimensions. For example, deficiencies in early childhood may limit future educational and income generation opportunities. Evidence of clear thresholds is rare and is mainly related to the vulnerability of different age groups, household income level, and the impacts of different degrees of global warming.
... Enfin, certaines études se penchent sur la manière dont sont abordées les questions de migrations et de changements climatiques dans la recherche et sur la construction de l'objet de recherche (Bates, 2002;Bettini, 2013a;Gemenne, 2010bGemenne, , 2011aGemenne, , 2011bNicholson, 2014;Piguet, 2013a). Elles se distinguent des travaux de synthèse classiques en proposant une lecture parfois critique sur les implications ontologiques, politiques voire éthiques quant au fait d'associer le binôme « migration » et « climat ». ...
Cette thèse a pour objectif de questionner, par l’intermédiaire d’une étude de cas dans les Andes boliviennes, le rôle des effets du changement climatique et plus largement des dégradations environnementales sur les migrations de populations. L’étude est articulée autour de quatre articles scientifiques et du texte cadre qui explicite l’ensemble du projet de recherche.
Mon analyse exhaustive des études empiriques portant sur les conséquences migratoires du changement climatique ou des catastrophes environnementales en Amérique du Sud permet de relever le nombre encore modeste de ces études et leur répartition très inégale. On trouve en effet beaucoup plus d’enquêtes sur l’Amérique centrale et en particulier sur le Mexique. En revanche, les pays andins restent peu explorés malgré leur forte vulnérabilité environnementale. Une des conclusions centrales du travail est que la relation entre les changements environnementaux et les migrations observée en Amérique latine confirme les principales tendances soulignées dans d’autres régions du monde : les déplacements se font le plus souvent sur de courtes distances avec une forte attraction des centres urbains. Dans le cas de catastrophes soudaines, les déplacements sont souvent de courtes durées. Il ressort également de l’étude que certains effets du changement climatique sur les migrations concernent tout particulièrement l’Amérique latine. C’est le cas de la fonte des glaciers tropicaux, dont les conséquences sur les sociétés sont encore peu étudiées. Le retrait glaciaire fait justement l’objet d’analyses approfondies dans cette étude.
Ma recherche identifie les principaux facteurs migratoires ainsi que les dynamiques migratoires à travers une étude de cas dans les régions montagneuses proches de La Paz en Bolivie. Des événements climatiques extrêmes, comme la grêle, le gel ou la forte variabilité de la disponibilité en eau pour l’irrigation, sont les principaux motifs environnementaux invoqués par les migrants. Ma recherche confirme donc le caractère multi-causal des migrations, où les facteurs environnementaux se combinent à d’autres facteurs migratoires comme l’accès aux terrains cultivables, à des emplois rémunérés ou à une formation supérieure. Les migrations observées sont régionales et se manifestent dans un contexte de relations migratoires préexistantes entre régions rurales et urbaines (La Paz et de El Alto), où l’on observe des mouvements d’allers-retours, de séjours temporaires ou encore de multi-résidences.
L’analyse approfondit également le rôle spécifique du retrait glaciaire au sein de ces dynamiques migratoires andines. Le retrait glaciaire est sûrement l’impact le plus tangible du changement climatique dans les Andes et plusieurs articles parus dans certains médias, rapports gouvernementaux ou d’ONG font état de potentielles conséquences migratoires. Cependant, mes résultats montrent qu’actuellement en Bolivie, le retrait des glaciers ne contribue pas à générer de nouveaux flux migratoires. En revanche, la fonte des glaces reste un phénomène préoccupant, car si elle ne pousse pas directement les gens à partir, la saisonnalité de la disponibilité en eau ou encore la dimension symbolique de la disparition de glaciers interfère néanmoins avec certains choix migratoires. Il génère par exemple, des craintes auprès des agriculteurs de montagnes quant aux possibilités futures de cultiver les terres dans des régions fortement dépendantes de l’eau des glaciers.
Mon étude se termine en questionnant les mécanismes qui ont fait de Khapi, l’un des quatre villages étudiés, le village le plus médiatisé de Bolivie lorsque sont évoquées les thématiques du retrait glaciaire et des « migrants climatiques ». Cette analyse permet de mettre en évidence le rôle et les agendas d’acteurs impliqués dans ce processus de médiatisation (journalistes, membres d’ONG, experts et habitants de la région). En donnant la parole aux habitants qui s’approprient, transforment ou rejettent les discours les concernant, mon étude permet d’aller au-delà de l’image simplificatrice et misérabiliste que l’on affecte souvent à ces « victimes-témoins ». Cette discussion contribue ainsi aux réflexions critiques sur la manière dont certaines régions du monde deviennent des études de cas emblématiques.
Finalement, mon étude apporte de nouveaux éléments de compréhension qui permettent de discuter de manière nuancée des impacts migratoires, des changements environnementaux et des enjeux de cette relation dans la région encore peu étudiée des Andes boliviennes. Sur la base de mon analyse, je propose, dans le chapitre conclusif, plusieurs pistes de recherches pour approfondir cette thématique ainsi qu’une réflexion sur les implications de cette recherche en termes de recommandations politiques.
... Obligations, representing both negative and positive place attachment, are as important under life-threatening disruptions as they are under less severe triggers of dissatisfaction. For example, in Hurricane Katrina, people refused to evacuate so as not to leave their pets behind (Gemenne 2010). In Bangladesh, mortality of women during cyclones is much higher than men, partly because of the role of as women primary carers with responsibilities to the elderly, children and the home (Begum 1993). ...
Explanations of relationships between migration and environmental change now focus on multiple interactions, risks in destination and immobility. This research applies behavioural migration theory to examine the extent to which immobile populations experiencing environmental degradation exercise agency with respect to location and, in doing so, elucidates what it means to be trapped. This research uses individual survey data from a migrant-sending area in highland Peru where the population experiences negative health and livelihood impacts from climate-related phenomena. Analysis of these data reveals three reasons for non-migration: high levels of satisfaction, resource barriers and low mobility potential. Immobility in dissatisfied people is more likely to be caused by attachment to place than resource constraints. Thus, the results suggest that trapped populations exist along a continuum. This highlights the need for policy responses differentiated by the mobility characteristics and preferences of the individual. Caution, therefore, must be exercised when labelling populations as trapped and promoting relocation.
... Ainsi le passage de Katrina a-t-il, par exemple, eu de graves conséquences sociales. Les classes sociales les plus défavorisées se sont trouvées piégées dans la ville, et elles se sont pour partie rendues dans des centres d'hébergement où elles ont dû faire face à des situations chaotiques (Cutter, 2006 ;Gemenne, 2010). Ces centres immenses et surpeuplés des jours durant ne comptaient, en effet, aucun stock de nourriture ou d'eau, tandis que les forces de l'ordre se sont rapidement trouvées dépassées par les événements. ...
Ce texte s’attache à mettre en évidence les causes
profondes de la vulnérabilité des sociétés aux aléas naturels en
exposant les facteurs et les processus qui transforment un simple
phénomène naturel en catastrophe. À partir de trois études de cas
(le tsunami de 2004 aux Maldives, Katrina en 2005 aux États-Unis,
Xynthia en 2010 en France), les auteurs montrent le rôle de quatre
grands facteurs, identifiés comme étant universels, dans la fabrique
des catastrophes « naturelles » : la conquête d’espaces exposés
aux aléas météomarins, la dégradation des zones tampons naturelles,
le « mythe du développement sûr » et la perte des liens que les
sociétés entretiennent avec leur environnement.
... To je istodobno i eklatantan primjer nejednakih prilika za raseljavanje i migracije siromašnih i bogatih. U razvijenom SAD-u, barem u početku te vremenske katastrofe, 70.000 siromašnih stanovnika New Orleansa, mahom Afroamerikanaca, nije imalo mogućnosti ni sredstva za napuštanje svojih domova (Gemenne, 2010). Jedna od najrazornijih suvremenih prirodnih katastrofa, potres u podmorju kod obale Sumatre u prosincu 2004. ...
Tridesetu obljetnicu časopisa Migracijske i etničke teme (MET) autori su shvatili kao prigodu da najave novu ključnu problematiku suvremenoga svijeta i njegove budućnosti, koja po njihovu sudu postaje upravo i središnja tema multidisciplinarnog i interdisciplinarnog područja migracijskih studija. Riječ je o raseljavanju ljudi u lokalnim i državnim okvirima te migracijama preko državnih granica, na regionalnoj i globalnoj razini, izazvanima, neposredno ili posredno, promjenama okoliša. Recentna genetska istraživanja nastanka i razvoja ljudske vrste dodatno potvrđuju da su ljudske ekološke migracije prvi i najstariji tip migracija uopće. K tome, kako sugeriraju arheološki i drugi nalazi, upravo su one ponekad igrale i ključnu ulogu u nastanku, propadanju i mijenjanju starih civilizacija. Čini se da su rani istraživači migracijskih studija imali dosta toga u vidu kad su promjene prirodnoga okoliša smatrali važnom odrednicom ljudskoga kretanja u prostoru. Taj je interes u društvenim znanostima zamro sve do druge polovine osamdesetih godina 20. stoljeća, kada se ponovno javlja. Autori prihvaćaju podjelu na uzročne kategorije »okolišnih migracija«: a) »prirodne« katastrofe; b) »urbanoindustrijske« katastrofe i c) iskorištavanje i degradacija resursa. Zatim se bave određenjem osnovnih pojmova, ponajprije prijeporom u vezi s određenjem »okolišnih izbjeglica« naspram »okolišnih migranata«. Naposljetku sistematiziraju dva glavna suprotstavljena pristupa migracijama i migrantima uvjetovanim promjenama okoliša. Prvi predstavljaju »alarmatičari«, a drugi »skeptici«. Skeptici, srećom, mogu (za sada) dokazivati da se zastrašujući crni scenariji o sve snažnijim i nezaustavljivim valovima okolišnih migranata (izbjeglica) ipak nisu ostvarili te da okolišni pokretači ljudskih migracija ne djeluju izolirano, nego u složenim sklopovima ekonomskoga, socijalnog i političkoga (ne)razvoja pojedinih političkih zajednica i cijelih regija. Ipak, oni, kao ni bilo tko drugi, ne mogu, nažalost, uvjerljivo osporiti da samo jedna kataklizmička prirodna katastrofa (kao što je udar meteora u Zemlju) može izazvati uništenje (dijela) čovječanstva i pretvaranje velikih dijelova našeg planeta u beživotna područja. Ako je ova naša (protuprirodna) civilizacija osuđena na propast, okolišni čimbenici, po svemu sudeći, bit će među njezinim grobarima.
... Although population pressure' often deemed a major cause of land degradation in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) [43,44], recurrent voluntary environmental out-migration could not only weaken the tension between population and environment, but could export environmental impacts elsewhere while also increasing social vulnerability [45]. We do not oppose the strategy of ordered resettlement to reduce population pressure directly, but we argue that rural households' concerns about long-term livelihood sustainability determine their migration intention and behavior. ...
Ecological migration policy has been proposed and implemented as a means for depopulating ecological restoration areas in the arid Northwest China. Migration intention is critical to the effectiveness of ecological migration policy. However, studies on migration intention in relation to ecological migration policy in China remain scant. Thus this paper aims to investigate the rural residents’ migration intentions and their affecting factors under ecological migration policy in Minqin County, an ecological restoration area, located at the lower terminus of Shiyang River Basin in arid Northwest China. The data for this study come from a randomly sampled household questionnaire survey. Results from logistic regression modelling indicate that most residents do not intend to migrate, despite rigid eco-environmental conditions and governance polices threatening livelihood sustainability. In addition to demographic and socio-economic factors, the eco-environmental factors are also significantly correlated with the possibility of a resident intending to migrate. The implications of the significant independent variables for the sustainability of ecological migration policy are discussed. The paper concludes that ecological migration policies may ultimately be more sustainable when taking into account household interests within complex migration intention contexts, such as household livelihoods dynamics and environmental change.
... (Jill Finnane, Eco Justice co-ordinator, PCP) Indeed, the term "climate refugees" is critiqued by some experts in the field of international refugee law, such as Jane McAdam who argues that "the governments of Kiribati or Tuvalu are not persecuting their people … the terminology is completely wrong" (Hannan, 2011). Francois Gemenne has found resistance to the term "climate refugees" in a diverse range of contexts, including among survivors of Hurricane Katrina in the southern USA (Gemenne, 2010). ...
Climate justice is rarely encountered in Australian media coverage of issues around climate change. The rare coverage of climate justice issues often focuses on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) such as Kiribati and commonly makes use of four main media frames: SIDS as “proof” of climate change, SIDS as “victims” of climate change, SIDS communities as climate “refugees,” and SIDS as travel destinations. Yet these frames undermine the desire of SIDS communities to be seen as proactive, self-determining, and active agents of change. This paper explores the way in which Pacific Islanders view the existing media coverage of their concerns over climate change and how they would prefer the media to tell their stories. Through an action research collaboration with a climate change non-governmental organization working in Kiribati and Australia, participants proposed alternative frames for climate justice media, including frames of human rights, active change agents, and migration with dignity.
... As a result of this assumption, people forced to flee to another country because of a disaster have often been granted temporary protection status: for example, temporary protection status in the USA was granted to the people of Montserrat displaced by the volcanic eruption in 1997, and to the people of Honduras and Nicaragua displaced by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. The experience of Hurricane Katrina, however, showed that people displaced by natural disasters were not always able to go home, as a significant proportion of the population of New Orleans has still not returned, and seems unlikely to do so in the future [17]. It is now increasingly acknowledged that disasters result in both temporary and permanent displacement, as well as in both proactive and reactive displacement. ...
Massive population displacements are now regularly presented as one of the most dramatic possible consequences of climate change. Current forecasts and projections show that regions that would be affected by such population movements are low-lying islands, coastal and deltaic regions, as well as sub-Saharan Africa. Such estimates, however, are usually based on a 2°C temperature rise. In the event of a 4°C+ warming, not only is it likely that climate-induced population movements will be more considerable, but also their patterns could be significantly different, as people might react differently to temperature changes that would represent a threat to their very survival. This paper puts forward the hypothesis that a greater temperature change would affect not only the magnitude of the associated population movements, but also--and above all--the characteristics of these movements, and therefore the policy responses that can address them. The paper outlines the policy evolutions that climate-induced displacements in a 4°C+ world would require.
This paper elaborates an aspirations–capabilities framework to advance our understanding of human mobility as an intrinsic part of broader processes of social change. In order to achieve a more meaningful understanding of agency and structure in migration processes, this framework conceptualises migration as a function of aspirations and capabilities to migrate within given sets of perceived geographical opportunity structures. It distinguishes between the instrumental (means-to-an-end) and intrinsic (directly wellbeing-affecting) dimensions of human mobility. This yields a vision in which moving and staying are seen as complementary manifestations of migratory agency and in which human mobility is defined as people’s capability to choose where to live, including the option to stay, rather than as the act of moving or migrating itself. Drawing on Berlin’s concepts of positive and negative liberty (as manifestations of the widely varying structural conditions under which migration occurs) this paper conceptualises how macro-structural change shapes people’s migratory aspirations and capabilities. The resulting framework helps to understand the complex and often counter-intuitive ways in which processes of social transformation and ‘development’ shape patterns of migration and enable us to integrate the analysis of almost all forms of migratory mobility within one meta-conceptual framework.
Le changement climatique est un problème mondial majeur qui lie par excellence le destin de l’homme avec celui de son environnement. Il nécessite de ce fait une réflexion systémique seule capable de mettre en évidence l’interrelation et l’interdépendance entre la qualité de l’environnement et la vie humaine. La question du changement du climat planétaire impose en effet de rompre avec la coupure sociologique fréquente entre l’homme et la nature. Elle impose de croiser les visions anthropocentrique et écocentrique afin de permettre une analyse et une compréhension (holistique) globale de cet enjeu seul capable d’aboutir à des scénarios d’action pertinents. La programme réunit des spécialistes de l’environnement, du développement durable et des spécialistes des migrations venant de disciplines différentes (science politique, droit, sociologie, géographie, aménagement) afin de produire une connaissance utile sur le comportement des gens touchés par des crises climatiques.
Les mouvements migratoires, transfrontaliers ou locaux de populations dus à des dégradations causées par le changement climatique ne relèvent pas d’un scénario de fiction, ni d’un avenir lointain. Ils se produisent certes à une échelle encore restreinte, sur le plan territorial, mais, déjà, rendent vulnérables des communautés entières et obligent les habitants à se déplacer de manière provisoire ou permanente pour assurer leur survie. Des exemples existent tant sur le continent asiatique et aux U.S.A. avec les phénomènes cycloniques, qu’aux îles du pacifique avec la montée des eaux ou en Europe avec les inondations et les incendies de grande ampleur du sud.
Sans attendre d’arriver aux estimations cataclysmiques évoquant des millions de réfugiés d’ici 2050, il est urgent d’étudier les mécanismes qui se mettent en place spontanément ou de manière programmée et qui permettent aux différentes sociétés touchées par ces crises d’y faire face. Si le changement du climat est d’ores et déjà inévitable (GIEC, 2007), la systématisation de l’expérience du présent est plus qu’indispensable pour penser les politiques publiques de demain.
Renvoyant à une pluralité de qualifications concurrentes, la construction du "problème public" constitué par les migrations environnementales s’est finalement stabilisée au niveau international autour de la problématique du changement climatique. Après avoir proposé une mise en ordre de la diversité des approches théoriques et des politiques publiques formulées, cet article insiste sur la nécessité d’une réorientation analytique : envisager les projets d’adaptation au changement climatique comme des "objets actants", produisant leurs effets politiques dans des contextes d’action fragilisés, permettrait de concevoir des réponses institutionnelles en phase avec les besoins et les attentes de populations devenues vulnérables. L’exemple du Sahel est alors mobilisé à titre illustratif.
This chapter attempts to contrast the ordinary views of climate-induced migration with its empirical reality. Though climate change can indeed induce some dramatic population displacements, our common conception of migration reflects a deterministic perspective, in which migrants are solely presented as resourceless victims. This conception might actually hinder the adaptive capacity of migrants and induce inadequate policy responses. In the final section, the chapter attempts to delineate some policy directions that would allow migration to unleash its adaptation potential. Environmental determinism assumes that people's course of action is exclusively determined by their environment. Climate change induces both voluntary migration and forced displacement. Whether climate-induced migration is and will be an adaptation failure or an adaptation strategy depends not only upon climate impacts, but also upon the policy choices that are made today.
Natural disasters and slow onset degradation due to climate and environmental change often cause sudden displacement and uncontrolled autonomous mass migration. Planned relocation is increasingly discussed as a policy response to prevent those perceived threats. Based on the analysis of three Environmental Change and Forced Migration Scenarios (EACH-FOR) case studies and existing literature on relocations in the context of development planning this contribution elaborates on the risks and pitfalls of planned relocation for the livelihoods of those subject to resettlement. Subsequently the question is raised as to how people can be protected from the shortfalls of relocation. Human rights-based approaches are recommended and discussed. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. All rights reserved.
Jusqu'à une période récente, la question des migrations environnementales a été largement traitée selon une approche déterministe, qui suppose que toute perturbation de l'environnement génère des flux migratoires, dont la nature et l'ampleur ne seraient déterminées que par des facteurs environnementaux. Cette approche déterministe se heurte pourtant de plein fouet à la réalité empirique de ces migrations et demande à être reconsidérée. Après avoir brièvement documenté le phénomène des migrations climatiques (données, impact, conséquences socio-économiques), nous nous interrogerons sur les politiques à mettre en œuvre au plus près des réalités locales afin de répondre à cet enjeu majeur du XXIe siècle. Nous questionnerons en particulier les stratégies d'adaptation, actuelles et futures, qui doivent être rapidement implémentées dans la région désignée comme épicentre du changement climatique : le Sahel.
Social science research on natural disasters documents how a natural hazard such as a hurricane becomes a disaster through social processes and social structures that place human populations in general, and certain segments in particular, at risk. After a description of Hurricane Katrina and its impact, we describe how patterns of land development, and the economic and political history of New Orleans, set the stage for this disaster. An overview of past research findings on the relationship between citizen vulnerability and poverty, minority status, age and disability, gender and tenancy is followed by evidence of the extent to which each risk factor was present in the pre-Katrina New Orleans population. The authors then cite evidence of how social vulnerability influenced outcomes at various stages of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe, including mitigation, preparation, evacuation, storm impacts, and recovery. The concluding section discusses how the goal of disaster resilient communities cannot be reached until basic issues of inequality and social justice are addressed.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a controversy emerged in the U.S. public sphere over the use of the word refugee to characterize the displaced residents of New Orleans. In this article, I explore the significance of the concept of “the refugee” for U.S. citizens, and I discuss what the failure to find an appropriate term to describe stranded New Orleanians reveals about the experience of poverty. I argue that the conceptual void uncovered by the crisis reflects the larger social void in which poor New Orleanians have long been confined and I examine the role of public discourse in defining and helping justify the inequalities uncovered by Katrina.
Hurricane Katrina revealed massive governmental failure at the local, state and federal levels. This commentary brings the modern theory of property rights and public choice reasoning to bear in explaining why officials failed to strengthen New Orleans's levee system despite forewarning of its weaknesses, failed to pre-deploy adequate emergency supplies as the storm approached landfall and failed to respond promptly afterwards. Its main lesson is that no one should have expected government to be any more effective when confronted with natural disaster than it is in more mundane circumstances. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2006
Strategically situated at the gateway to the Mississippi River yet standing atop a former swamp, New Orleans was from the first what geographer Peirce Lewis called an "impossible but inevitable city." How New Orleans came to be, taking shape between the mutual and often contradictory forces of nature and urban development, is the subject of An Unnatural Metropolis. Craig E. Colten traces engineered modifications to New Orleans's natural environment from 1800 to 2000 and demonstrates that, though all cities must contend with their physical settings, New Orleans may be the city most dependent on human-induced transformations of its precarious site. In a new preface, Colten shows how Hurricane Katrina exemplifies the inability of human artifice to exclude nature from cities and he urges city planners to keep the environment in mind as they contemplate New Orleans's future. Urban geographers frequently have portrayed cities as the antithesis of nature, but in An Unnatural Metropolis, Colten introduces a critical environmental perspective to the history of urban areas. His amply illustrated work offers an in-depth look at a city and society uniquely shaped by the natural forces it has sought to harness. © 2005 by Louisiana State University Press. All rights reserved.
At a time of increasing globalization and worldwide vulnerability, the study of disasters has become an important focus for anthropological research-one where the four fields of anthropology are synthesized to address the multidimensionality of the effects to a community's social structures and relationship to the environment. Using a variety of natural and technological disasters-including Mexican earthquakes, drought in the Andes and in Africa, the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Oakland firestorm, and the Bhopal gas disaster-the authors of this volume explore the potentials of disaster for ecological, political-economic, and cultural approaches to anthropology along with the perspectives of archaeology and history. They also discuss the connection between theory and practice and what anthropology can do for disaster management.
Abstract This paper uses the post-Katrina migration as a quasi-experiment to confront concerns of selection bias and measurement error that have long plagued research on environmental eects. Drawing primarily on a phone survey of 3,879 respondents, it demonstrates that despite the attention to issues of race and poverty following Hurricane Katrina, people in communities that took in evacuees actually became less supportive of the poor, of African Americans, and of policies to help those groups. The patterns uncovered suggest that the key mechanism is not direct contact, physical proximity, or persuasion by local elites. Instead, the empirical observations accord with a new theory of environmental eects emphasizing the interaction of changing demographics and the media environment. Under the theory of politicized change, sudden changes in local demographics make demographics salient to local residents. Media coverage can convey information about these shifts and can also frame people’s thinking on issues related to them. 2
Before Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in the summer of 2005, most of us knew a lot less about the Crescent City than we do today. This timely book, which appeared just eight months before storm waves overwhelmed the city's levees, is one of the key works that have enabled us to learn so much so fast. Craig Colten tracks the environmental challenges that the residents of New Orleans have wrestled with for close to three centuries as they have tried to control the water threatening them from the north, south, occasionally the west, and even from the sky above and the ground below. Colten recognizes that such a story is not only about nature but people as well, and he does much to further the ongoing integration of environmental and social history. A geographer with a keen eye for issues of race and class, Colten demonstrates that the natural environment has been one of the most important factors shaping the social and physical development of New Orleans.
The alluvial floodplain that became New Orleans was a terrible site for a city. Colten explains that the Mississippi regularly overflowed its banks there, and the elevated water table encouraged a wetland environment that rested on highly compressible subsoils. As a result, river floods and standing water have perennially plagued the city. Residents responded from an early date by building levees to hold back the river and digging canals to drain water into Lake Pontchartrain. In the twentieth century, they began using pumps to dry out wetlands and remove the approximately sixty inches of rain that fell every year. But despite these efforts to control the area's challenging environment, the best that the builders of New Orleans could produce was a city inside a shallow earthen bowl that is difficult to bale out and slowly sinking into the ground.
The city's unique site complicated a host of environmental problems that often hit poor whites and African Americans hardest. In the nineteenth century, New Orleans endured many of the same afflictions suffered by contemporary cities: tainted water, poorly drained sewage, standing garbage, and offensive industries ranging from slaughterhouses to tanneries. But some of these problems posed greater challenges for New Orleans than other urban sites. The extremely low elevation made it impossible to drain the city without expensive pumps, and the only practical source of drinking water—the Mississippi—also served as a sink for up-river industries. To make matters worse, surging water from the river and lake frequently flooded the city, and standing water provided a breeding ground for mosquitoes that spread the deadly yellow fever virus. New Orleans' poor whites and blacks often lived in the lowest areas and bore a disproportionate amount of the suffering. Colten explains that, unlike in the arid American West where water has always flowed toward money, in New Orleans it has always flowed toward poverty.
Colten also reveals the long history of failure that has dogged the levees intended to protect New Orleans. Early levees were never entirely up to the job, and twentieth-century urban sprawl magnified the problem considerably. Beginning in the nineteen twenties, the city and its suburbs opened vast new areas to development by draining wetlands between the city and lake and ringing them with levees. Homes soon covered the former marshes and swamps, but storm-driven waves bested the new levees over and over again throughout the century. Development continued nonetheless, and a familiar pattern in New Orleans repeated itself in the city's suburbs, where minority populations still endure worse flooding than their white neighbors.
One of Colten's most important contributions is his effort to counter the long-standing scholarly assumption that cities are nature's antithesis. He insists instead that cities are always embedded in natural environments and rely on them for their very survival. This point cannot be overemphasized: Cities are not divorced from nature, even though they sometimes seem as if they are, and forgetting that fact can contribute to catastrophe. No city provides a better illustration than New Orleans.
Yet Colten unwittingly undermines this argument by calling New Orleans "unnatural." Although he finds the term fitting because the city's...
Abstract This paper uses the post-Katrina migration as an exogenous shock to confront concerns of selection bias that have long plagued research on contextual effects. Drawing on a new phone survey of 3,879 respondents, it demonstrates that despite the national concern about issues of race and poverty following Hurricane Katrina, people in some communities that took in evacuees actually became less supportive of spending to help the poor and African Americans. In other communities, residents became more supportive of anti-crime spending during the same time period. These observations accord with a new “politicized places” theory of contextual effects emphasizing the interaction of local conditions and the media environment. Under this theory, sudden changes in local demographics make demographics salient to local residents. Media coverage can convey information about these shifts and can also frame people’s thinking on issues related to them. Observed variations in local media coverage provide further evidence for this approach.
It has long been understood by disaster researchers that both the general public and organizational actors tend to believe in various disaster myths. Notions that disasters are accompanied by looting, social disorganization, and deviant behavior are examples of such myths. Research shows that the mass media play a significant role in promulgating erroneous beliefs about disaster behavior. Following Hurricane Katrina, the response of disaster victims was framed by the media in ways that greatly exaggerated the incidence and severity of looting and lawlessness. Media reports initially employed a “civil unrest” frame and later characterized victim behavior as equivalent to urban warfare. The media emphasis on lawlessness and the need for strict social control both reflects and reinforces political discourse calling for a greater role for the military in disaster management. Such policy positions are indicators of the strength of militarism as an ideology in the United States.
We analyze three aspects of media depictions of Hurricane Katrina, focusing on the relationship between race and coverage of the crisis. Examination of media language use explores the debate surrounding the terms “refugees” and “evacuees”—as well as descriptions of “looting” versus “finding food”—in light of the predominantly Black demographic of the survivors in New Orleans. Assessment of the story angle indicates a disproportionate media tendency to associate Blacks with crime and violence, a propensity consistent with exaggerated and inaccurate reports regarding criminal activity in Katrina's aftermath. A review of new media sources such as mass e-mails identifies stereotypical depictions of storm survivors that both converge and diverge from coverage found in more traditional media outlets. Psychological explanations, implications for public attitudes and behavior, and future research questions are explored.
Hurricane Katrina revealed a lack of preparedness in disaster management networks covering the New Orleans area. This paper focuses on the operation of networks in preparing to evacuate residents in advance of a major disaster. There are two cases: the relatively successful evacuation of residents who left by private conveyance and the widely publicized failure to provide for those who could not or would not leave on their own. We trace the actions and inactions of various players to reach conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses of networks in the special circumstances of disaster preparation.
In July 2006, a New Orleans physician and two nurses were arrested and accused of the second-degree murder of four patients at Memorial Medical Center in 2005, 4 days after Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Tyler Curiel writes that a key question is whether Memorial's staff members were prepared to make life-and-death decisions during a disaster. If not, what could have prepared them?
Former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial
- E Gordon
The great Katrina migration
- P Grier
The Storm. What Went Wrong and Why During Hurricane Katrina - The Inside Story from One Louisiana Scientist
- I Van Heerden
- M Bryan
Hurricane Katrina related fatalities in Louisiana
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The criminalization of New Orleanians in Katrina’s wake. Social Sciences Research Council
- S Kaufman
When words break down
- G Nunberg
The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
- D Brinkley
Leaving New Orleans: Social Stratification, Networks, and Hurricane Evacuation
- E Fussell
Lou Dobbs Tonight: Cable News Network
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Come Hell Or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster
- M E Dyson
Politicized change: How local reactions to the Post-Katrina migrants were shaped by the media. Unpublished paper, Center for the Study of American Politics
- D J Hopkins
Human development Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world
- K D Watkins
Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world
- K D Watkins