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Disasters, migrations, and the unintended consequences of urbanization: What’s the harm in getting out of harm’s way?

DOI:10.1007/s11111-015-0248-1
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Christopher Wolsko
Christopher Wolsko
Christopher Wolsko
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Elizabeth Marino
Elizabeth Marino
Elizabeth Marino
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Abstract

Under many circumstances, the global rural-to-urban migration trend may be increasingly adopted as a short-term coping strategy to shifting ecologies and natural disasters. While offering certain benefits from macro-level economic and public health perspectives, these migrations may also have unintended psychological consequences that are not easily understood through traditional disaster studies or cost–benefit analyses. If the goal of disaster and climate change research is to promote successful adaptation, then the long-term psychological well-being of people who have survived disaster and either adapted in situ or migrated into urban environments, is paramount. This article integrates research on disasters and climate change-induced migration with emerging perspectives from environmental psychology and the psychology of natural disasters to consider the potential costs of particular migration scenarios. We apply this analysis to the case of Shishmaref, Alaska, a rural Iñupiat community on the northwest coast of Alaska facing habitual flooding disasters linked to climate change. Findings from Shishmaref illustrate the cultural vitality of subsistence landscapes and the potential health risks of compromised human–ecological relationships due to migration and/or displacement. Recommendations for policy makers and researchers are offered for promoting long-term well-being among affected individuals and communities.
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PERSPECTIVES
Disasters, migrations, and the unintended consequences
of urbanization: What’s the harm in getting
out of harm’s way?
Christopher Wolsko
1
•Elizabeth Marino
1
Published online: 5 October 2015
ÓSpringer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Abstract Under many circumstances, the global rural-to-urban migration trend
may be increasingly adopted as a short-term coping strategy to shifting ecologies
and natural disasters. While offering certain benefits from macro-level economic
and public health perspectives, these migrations may also have unintended psy-
chological consequences that are not easily understood through traditional disaster
studies or cost–benefit analyses. If the goal of disaster and climate change research
is to promote successful adaptation, then the long-term psychological well-being of
people who have survived disaster and either adapted in situ or migrated into urban
environments, is paramount. This article integrates research on disasters and climate
change-induced migration with emerging perspectives from environmental psy-
chology and the psychology of natural disasters to consider the potential costs of
particular migration scenarios. We apply this analysis to the case of Shishmaref,
Alaska, a rural In
˜upiat community on the northwest coast of Alaska facing habitual
flooding disasters linked to climate change. Findings from Shishmaref illustrate the
cultural vitality of subsistence landscapes and the potential health risks of com-
promised human–ecological relationships due to migration and/or displacement.
Recommendations for policy makers and researchers are offered for promoting
long-term well-being among affected individuals and communities.
Keywords Disasters Migration Climate change Environmental psychology
American Indians Alaska Natives Mental health Health
&Christopher Wolsko
chris.wolsko@osucascades.edu
Elizabeth Marino
elizabeth.marino@osucascades.edu
1
Graduate and Research Center, Oregon State University – Cascades, 650 SW Columbia Street,
Bend, OR 97701, USA
123
Popul Environ (2016) 37:411–428
DOI 10.1007/s11111-015-0248-1
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Theme 1: The land, the self, and climate change Importance of the land for mental health. The natural environment was found to foster a sense of true self and to be a core component of Inuit, Inupiat, and Gwich'in identities (Bunce et al., 2016;Cunsolo et al., 2020;Cunsolo Willox et al., 2012, 2013a, 2013bHarper et al., 2015;Middleton et al., 2020a;Ostapchuk et al., 2012;Petrasek MacDonald et al., 2015;Proverbs et al., 2020;Sakakibara, 2010;Sawatzky et al., 2020;Wolsko & Marino, 2016). In three studies, Inuit reported that the land connects them with their ancestors and with nature, and that it allows spiritual enrichment, continuity of traditions, and remembrance of history (Cunsolo Willox et al., 2013b;Durkalec et al., 2015;Petrasek MacDonald et al., 2015). ...
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... Ambrosetti and Petrillo (2016) looked at relocation due to the L'Aquila earthquake of 2009 in Italy using governmental data to compare population flow into and out of affected areas six years before and four years after the earthquake. This has become especially prominent in climate change literature, where researchers are exploring how pressures related to climate change, such as frequent disasters like nuisance flooding and threats to livelihood, are driving residents to resettle (Kloos and Baumert 2015;McNamara and Des Combes 2015;Wolsko and Marino 2016). ...
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... Dozens of Alaska Native Villages are experiencing flooding, erosion, melting permafrost, and later snowfall. In Shishmaref, Alaska, residents are keen to relocate, but lack of funding and political commitment mean they are trapped in place; this causes significant stress with adverse consequences for mental health (Wolsko and Marino, 2016). In Newtok, Alaska, while some residents were relocated in 2019 to higher ground, construction delays mean that most people remain in the old settlement where there is little incentive to invest in health-promoting infrastructure, no running water, limited sanitation, inadequate waste treatment and unreliable power generation (Eichelberger, 2018;Ristroph, 2021). ...
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