Panel description:
As the climate crisis intensifies, climate migration is becoming an increasingly important phenomenon. However, migration caused by climate change is not sufficiently recognised and these disasters are often referred to as "natural disasters", deflecting responsibility away from those who have been responsible for climate change in the past and allowing policy makers to ignore their obligations to displaced populations.
Furthermore, narratives about climate migrants are often steeped in racialisation and practises of externalisation, particularly at the external borders of Europe. Black migrants in Tunisia and Morocco face significant discrimination and racial prejudice. These people are often subjected to negative stereotypes and treated as a threat to national security or social cohesion. Such systemic racism not only shapes public perceptions but is also the basis for policies that further marginalise these migrants and lead to experiences of violence and exclusion.
This panel aims to explore the complex intersections between the naturalisation of these disasters, the racialisation of migrants — including climate migrants — at Europe’s borders and the externalisation of EU migration policies.
The panel convenors are looking for paper abstracts that engage with the following research questions:
· How does the naturalisation of climate change-induced disasters influence the European Union's approach to climate migration, and in what ways does it deflect responsibility for climate-induced displacement?
· In what ways are climate migrants racialised at Europe’s external borders, particularly in Tunisia and Morocco, and how does this racialisation influence public perceptions and policy responses?
· How has the externalisation of EU migration policy to third countries disproportionately affected climate migrants, especially those from sub-Saharan Africa?
· What is the relationship between Europe’s historical colonialism, the current externalisation of migration policies and the racialisation of climate migrants?
Please submit a 250-word abstract along with your names, affiliations, and contact details to Pau Palop-Garcia (