Origins and functions of climate-related relocation: An analytical review

Abstract

Planned, state-led population relocation is advanced as an adaptation to climate change. Concerned that climate hazards will threaten settlement viability and provoke widespread, unplanned migration, global discourse overwhelmingly characterizes relocation as a voluntary, “last resort” effort to resettle and rebuild communities in safer areas. Over the past decade, scholars have investigated where and why climate-related relocation materializes and how it functions as an adaptation (or otherwise). This article systematically reviews the scientific literature, concluding that climate-related relocation is a more diverse and complex process than recognized within dominant research efforts and policy narratives. While climate-related relocation is sometimes a function of environmental migration pressures and adaptation imperatives, recent critical scholarship shows that climate-related relocation processes are embedded in historical responses to environment and development problems and unfold through political negotiation, discourse, and the social construction of risk and response. In practice, “adaptive relocation” frequently involves population redistribution (villagization and sedentarization) as well as resettlement, is often proactive and involuntary, and risks (re)producing maladaptive outcomes. Based on this analysis, I argue for an expanded research and policy agenda centered around a pluralistic conceptual framework that respects the diversity of relocation efforts undertaken as adaptation.