{"id":12924,"date":"2022-08-22T07:35:10","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T12:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=12924"},"modified":"2022-08-22T08:20:18","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T13:20:18","slug":"the-age-of-migrations-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2022\/08\/22\/the-age-of-migrations-to-come\/","title":{"rendered":"The age of migrations to come"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gaia Vince\u2019s Guardian <\/em>article \u201cThe Century of Climate Migration: Why We Need to Plan for the Great Upheaval<\/a>,\u201d adapted from her forthcoming book Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World<\/a><\/em>, is a very good overview of the coming age of mass migrations. It\u2019s also more or less what I\u2019ve been arguing in my writing<\/a> on climate change<\/a>, migration<\/a>, and \u201cclimate Pre-TSD<\/a>\u201d (pre-traumatic stress disorder).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s useful to have so much of the big picture assembled in a single, open-access newspaper article:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coming migration will involve the world\u2019s poorest fleeing deadly heatwaves and failed crops. It will also include the educated, the middle class, people who can no longer live where they planned because it\u2019s impossible to get a mortgage or property insurance; because employment has moved elsewhere\u2026 [. . .]<\/p>

In 2020, refugees around the world exceeded 100 million, tripling since 2010, and half were children. . . . In addition to these, 350 million people are undocumented worldwide, an astonishing 22 million in the US alone . . . Today, the 50 million climate-displaced people already outnumber those fleeing political persecution.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

And so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main question about the age of migrations to come, in Vince\u2019s view, is whether we will rise to the challenge of managing the process. There are many reasons to doubt that we will, but she outlines how we could<\/em> — not by accentuating skin-deep distinctions between people (she points out the artificiality of homogeneous nation-states) and militarizing existing borders, but by developing the bureaucracy for inclusiveness. And while that doesn\u2019t sound like a very appealing strategy in today\u2019s political climate, that\u2019s all the more reason to discuss and prepare for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A democracy with a mandate of official inclusiveness from its people is generally more stable \u2013 but it needs underpinning by a complex bureaucracy. Nations have navigated this in various ways, for example, devolving power to local communities, giving them voice and agency over their own affairs within the nation state (as is the case in Canada, or Switzerland\u2019s cantons). By embracing multiple groups, languages and cultures as equally legitimate, a country like Tanzania can function as a national mosaic of at least 100 different ethnic groups and languages. In Singapore, which has consciously pursued an integrated multi-ethnic population, at least one-fifth of marriages are interracial. Unjust hierarchies between groups make this harder, particularly when imposed on a majority by a minority.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

One point of difference with my own thinking is that I continue to think that a relationship to land — what I\u2019m hesitantly considering a process of \u201creindigenization<\/a>,\u201d based on Indigenous proposals for indigenization<\/a> but extended into a more complex<\/a> and globally variable process of social reconstruction \u2013 will be central to the \u201cecologization<\/a>\u201d any solution will require. This is what I think Bruno Latour<\/a> means with his concept of becoming \u201cearthbound<\/a>.\u201d There\u2019s a lot to be determined<\/a> in the \u201cboundedness,\u201d or the unbinding and rebounding<\/a>, such a process will entail, such as who will be admitted<\/a> into the negotiation, who will determine the outcome, and to what ends<\/a>. The politics of boundaries and boundedness are, needless to say, a crucial feature of the politics of any possible future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vince counters this idea of \u201cbelonging to land\u201d when she writes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least as challenging, though, will be the task of overcoming the idea that we belong to a particular land and that it belongs to us<\/em>. We will need to assimilate into globally diverse societies, living in new, polar cities. We will need to be ready to move again when necessary. With every degree of temperature increase, roughly 1 billion people will be pushed outside the zone in which humans have lived for thousands of years. [emphasis added]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The latter is certainly true, but a sense of ontological relatedness<\/a> and kinship with land<\/a> has been with humans since our beginnings<\/a>, and the loss of that \u2013 violent, in the cases of colonized and indigenous peoples \u2013 is very much a part of the traumas that underlie our present state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vince writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question for humanity becomes: what does a sustainable world look like? We will need to develop an entirely new way of feeding, fuelling and maintaining our lifestyles, while also reducing atmospheric carbon levels. We will need to live in denser concentrations in fewer cities, while reducing the associated risks of crowded populations, including power outages, sanitation problems, overheating, pollution and infectious disease.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Yes, that. And much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Making<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gaia Vince\u2019s Guardian article \u201cThe Century of Climate Migration: Why We Need to Plan for the Great Upheaval,\u201d adapted from her forthcoming book Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World, is a very good overview of the coming age of mass migrations. It\u2019s also more or less what I\u2019ve been arguing in my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[688615],"tags":[123519,628491,710377,710376,147],"class_list":["post-12924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropo_scene","tag-bruno-latour","tag-earthbound","tag-gaia-vince","tag-mass-migrations","tag-migration"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-3ms","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7038,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2013\/11\/24\/querying-natural-religion-responses-to-latour\/","url_meta":{"origin":12924,"position":0},"title":"Querying Natural Religion: Responses to Latour","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"November 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The following are my notes from \"Querying Natural Religion: Immanence, Gaia, and the Parliament of Lively Things.\" (Live-blogging did not work, as we didn't have a live internet connection.) These notes are followed by a brief set of post-event summary comments. The setting: an airplane hangar of a hall in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/0.academia-photos.com\/24090\/7811\/7448\/s200_adrian.ivakhiv.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12421,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2022\/03\/14\/ukraine-the-migrant-crisis-the-future\/","url_meta":{"origin":12924,"position":1},"title":"Ukraine, the “migrant crisis,” & the future","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are some thoughts on the humanitarian, historical, moral, and environmental implications of the crisis of refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They were prompted by questions asked of me by a public radio interviewer. I'm still working on the answers (and the interview has not aired, as far\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural politics"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cultural_politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/03\/3049.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/03\/3049.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/03\/3049.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2022\/03\/3049.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9714,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2018\/06\/15\/skipping-an-earthbeat\/","url_meta":{"origin":12924,"position":2},"title":"Skipping an Earthbeat","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading Bill McGuire's 2012 book\u00a0Waking the Giant: How a Changing Climate Triggers Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Volcanoes, I came across this description of the annual \"pulse\" called an \"Earthbeat,\" which is supposedly responsible for Earth's preference for volcanic eruptions between November and April (also known as \"volcano season\"): rather like a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2018\/06\/The-Four-Worldviews-and-Views-of-Nature-Described-in-the-Cultural-Theory-of-Risk-Figure-275x226.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13751,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2024\/10\/09\/the-eh-consensus\/","url_meta":{"origin":12924,"position":3},"title":"The EH consensus (?)","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The field I\u2019ve worked in for the last few decades, which has come to be known as the Environmental Humanities (capitalized or not), is one that requires keeping up with ongoing scholarship not only in the humanities, but also in the social sciences and the biological and earth sciences. From\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2024\/10\/20240928_104538.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2024\/10\/20240928_104538.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2024\/10\/20240928_104538.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2024\/10\/20240928_104538.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2024\/10\/20240928_104538.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6306,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2012\/10\/30\/latour-on-gaia-natural-religion\/","url_meta":{"origin":12924,"position":4},"title":"Latour on Gaia & Natural Religion","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Bruno Latour's upcoming Gifford Lectures sound remarkable.\u00a0See ANTHEM for the details. There could be no better theme for a lecture series on natural religion than that of Gaia, this puzzling figure that has emerged recently in public discourse from Earth science as well as from many activist and spiritual movements.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8394,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/09\/18\/eco-humanities-glossolalia\/","url_meta":{"origin":12924,"position":5},"title":"Eco-humanities glossolalia","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"September 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I've just come across the earliest outline I wrote for the course I'm currently teaching (in its third incarnation), \"Environmental Literature, Arts, and Media.\" The course has also turned into a book project I'm working on, which will be a thematic primer to the environmental arts and humanities.\u00a0Both course and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12924"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12934,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12924\/revisions\/12934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}