ABSTRACT
This paper provides an overview of deconstructing many of the myths and much of the rhetoric surrounding discussions on forced migration of people due to climate change. Many communities are being told that they need to prepare for migration due to climate change, with several initiatives currently ongoing or being discussed in places from Alaska to Bangladesh and from Maldives to Kiribati. The method used here is an overview of examples appearing in the literature, examining what the people are being told regarding climate change and migration alongside the discourses surrounding each case study. Without denying the potential for human migration linked to climate change, as well as the current situations where migration is happening due to climate change only, the results show that much of the discourse is not placed within deeper and broader understandings of migration and non-migration. Connecting with the non-climate change scientific literature is generally absent as is placing climate change and responses to it within wider disaster, development, and sustainability domains. Instead, both scientists and the media frequently repeat uncritically specific themes, namely disappearing islands, vanishing coastlines, climate (change) refugees, and climate change caused disasters leading to forced migration. Nuances, subtleties, complexities, and provisos are typically absent, despite them pervading choices and lack of options for migration and non-migration which potentially has connections to contemporary climate change. The keys for understanding the reality of the intersection amongst climate change, migration, and non-migration tend to be resources and choices to make decisions rather than climate change per se as an inevitable and sole forcer of population movements. This paper thus provides a uniquely critiquing overview of the case studies said to be climate change migration.
