Internal to Cross-border Displacement in Multi-Risk and Slow-Onset Contexts

Internal to Cross-border Displacement in Multi-Risk and Slow-Onset Contexts – Dr Caroline Zickgraf (The Hugo Observatory, University of Liège, Belgium)
Displacement presents a complex issue that is far too often overly simplified, both in terms of knowledge about its drivers and outcomes and in terms of responding political solutions. Drivers are often articulated in the singular and, specifically, as conflict forces people to flee their homes. Whereas previous research and grey literature tends to isolate risks (conflict, armed violence, natural disasters) and subsequent displacement outcomes (internal or cross-border displacement), research findings highlight the important linkages among drivers, trajectories, and outcomes. A single force rarely alone causes displacement and trajectories do not respect traditional distinctions between internal and cross-border displacement, particularly in porous borderlands such as West Africa’s ECOWAS region. Therefore, this presentation asserts that displacement scenarios should be considered as risks combine to force people to flee their homes internally and across national borders while challenging singular or binary characterizations of human mobility.
Taking the particular lens of environment and climate change-related displacement, which currently account for more new internal displacement than conflict (IDMC 2018), we present two key aspects to consider: a) displacement in slow-onset environmental change contexts and b) the importance of multi-risk scenarios in driving displacement. The former presents a particular challenge as the influence of environment (sea-level rise, desertification, drought, etc.) becomes difficult to disentangle from other social, economic, demographic and political influences. Resulting from this conceptual marsh, people are often labeled as ‘economic’ or ‘labour’ migrants as they move away from their homes seeking better opportunities. The environmental aspects underpinning these movements become obscured along with their protection needs. The latter, multi-risk scenarios, need also be highlighted because of the geographical concurrence of risks. While commonly sudden-onset disasters are linked to displacement, such hazards frequently occur in the same areas as slow-onset disasters. Flooding plagues many coastal populations that are concomitantly menaced by sea-level rise and coastal erosion. Thus, separating these drivers and their attached displacement reveals only a portion of the bigger picture of how people’s migratory decisions and mobility outcomes take shape.
Finally, this presentation pushes for complexity to be recognized not only in terms of displacement drivers, but also in the ways that the scientific community and policymakers approach the characterization of displacement journeys and outcomes. We argue against teleological narratives that assume a linear process of movement and present evidence regarding the dynamic geopolitical movement of displaced persons.