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‘Climate Refugees’ in the Pacific
Postdoc Project by Dr. Silja Klepp
A research project dealing with ‘climate refugees’ in the Pacific within the INTERCOAST research focus on climate change and flood risks and its strong impacts on coastal areas and islands.
Focusing on the low-lying Pacific island of Tuvalu as a threatened nation and New Zealand as neighbouring nation, my research proposes an analysis of the current developments on the island and in New Zealand in relation to legal and political discourses around climate change refugees. How do people on a shrinking island cope with uncertainties about the future, how do they adapt to change and how do they come to their migration decisions? After carrying out empirical research on the ground in Tuvalu and New Zealand in a second research phase I will connect my fieldwork findings and the needs of (potential) climate refugees on Tuvalu to current legal and political discourses.
Focusing on the low-lying Pacific island of Tuvalu as a threatened nation and New Zealand as neighbouring nation, my research proposes an analysis of the current developments on the island and in New Zealand in relation to legal and political discourses around climate change refugees. How do people on a shrinking island cope with uncertainties about the future, how do they adapt to change and how do they come to their migration decisions? After carrying out empirical research on the ground in Tuvalu and New Zealand in a second research phase I will connect my fieldwork findings and the needs of (potential) climate refugees on Tuvalu to current legal and political discourses.