Call for papers

Migraciones
Instituto Universitario de Estudios sobre Migraciones

Universidad Pontificia Comillas

(Monographic issue)

 

For a Political Ecology of Migration
Understanding Mobility, Immobility and Resistances in the Socioecological Transformation

Guest editors

  • Gennaro Avallone | Università degli studi di Salerno
  • Arianna Poletti | Sustainable Development and Climate Change phd program - Università degli studi di Salerno

Contents

The fundamental aim of this monographic issue of Migraciones is to gather analyses that contribute to outlining a political ecology of migration.

Over the last two decades, some scholars have explicitly engaged in this direction (Vigil, 2024; Sánchez & Riosmena, 2021; Radel et al., 2018; Ahmed et al., 2018). Others, while not explicitly using the term political ecology, have focused on the relationships between mobility, immobility, and socio-ecological transformations (Zickgraf, 2021; Agustoni & Maretti, 2019). These works share a critical stance toward studies and public representations of so-called environmental and climate migrations. They challenge alarmist and emergency approaches that envisage a world “flooded” or “invaded” by hundreds of millions of climate refugees within the next twenty years—without addressing the underlying causes and structural forces.

Some governments, international organizations and media narratives contribute to alarmist and securitized portrayals, reinforcing xenophobic concerns. Even though the climate migration apocalypse is a myth rather than fact (De Haas, 2020), this alarmist rhetoric has contributed to justifying a vast border control apparatus in wealthy regions like Europe, the U.S., and Australia, reinforcing a system of “climate apartheid.” (Alston, 2019; Long, 2024). At the same time, such critical analyses have discussed the theoretical and epistemological models underlying this predominant perspective, recognising the fact that it tends to reproduce a push-and-pull interpretative model by simply adding environmental and climatic factors to already familiar migratory drivers.

This monograph aims to continue to strengthen and further connect this set of orientations and research, recognizing that in a world facing unprecedented environmental changes and escalating climate shifts, the predicament of displaced populations has emerged as a paramount global concern. At the same time, there is a historical awareness that displacement processes linked to socio-ecological transformations are not exclusively a fact of the last five decades, nor are they only connected to ongoing climate change. An historical perspective underscores how capitalism has continuously produced conditions of displacement—linked to dispossession and extractive activities necessary to open new commodity frontiers and produce cheap natures fundamental in the Capitalocene (Moore, 2017)—from the enclosures of feudal Europe to colonial dispossession and contemporary land grabs (Federici, 2004). Some scholars link migration to the persistent logic of capitalist and imperialist expansion, where the creation of inhospitable living environments systematically forces populations into mobility or very precarious living conditions (Hamouchene & Sandwell, 2023; Natarajan, Brickell, & Parsons, 2019).

In contrast to dominant perspectives that emphasize forced migration due to environmental crises, political ecology approaches consider both mobility and immobility. They examine the role of policies, state control, and resistance in shaping migration dynamics. This perspective critiques securitized narratives and explores the broader socio-ecological and political contexts that influence human mobility.  It also examines the contested definitions of climate refugees, highlighting that international migration organizations like the IOM and UNHCR acknowledge the absence of legal consensus on the term. This ambiguity surrounding environmental migration partly stems from blurred distinctions between economic and forced migration, as well as the limited analytical depth of institutional definitions.

Political ecology offers a critical perspective, arguing that migration should be understood as an inherently political phenomenon tied to socio-ecological transformations. This approach challenges securitized and apolitical framings, instead situating migration within historical and structural contexts. It critiques the longstanding processes of dispossession, primitive accumulation, and environmental degradation that shape mobility patterns.

Ultimately, political ecology critiques the dominant migration discourse, arguing that displacement is not merely a response to environmental crises but a structured outcome of historical and political-economic forces. This perspective broadens the understanding of migration beyond simplistic push-pull models, emphasizing the role of power, governance, and global inequalities in shaping human mobility. 

Within this analytical perspective, the war regime that is once again consolidating—especially following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and Israel's military action in Gaza since 2023 (UNEP, 2024; 2022)—brings back into focus the connection between war, ecocide, and population displacement processes. The devastation of living environments during conflicts—which can extend to framing the ecocide-war nexus and, in specific cases, the ecocide-genocide nexus—is also linked to what Jim Glassman (1992) termed the strategic nexus between counterinsurgency, ecocide, and the production of refugees. For these reasons, the issue of the nexus between war and ecocide is fundamental to understand migration and displacement, but also resistances, from the standpoint of political ecology.

We invite contributions from scholars in the social sciences, as well as those researching at the intersections of legal, philosophical, and social studies. Abstract proposals should offer empirical and theoretical-methodological insights into the relationship between migration, displacement, and socio-ecological transformations. In particular, proposals may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • The relationship between displacement and green grabbing, including extractivist and neo-extractivist practices.
  • The study and critique of international definitions of climate and environmental migration, as well as climate and environmental refugees.
  • Border control and governance policies that directly or indirectly support climate apartheid and processes of forced immobility.
  • The analysis of the relationship between war, ecocide, and migration.
  • The study of violence related to border control and dispossession-induced migration.
  • The autonomy of migration amid socio-ecological crises and transformations.
  • The theoretical and epistemological contributions of political ecology to understanding processes of mobility and immobility.

We look forward to receiving innovative and critical contributions that challenge dominant migration discourses and enrich the debate on socio-ecological transformations.

The required abstract is between 150 and 250 words. The abstract should also contain the title and institutional affiliations and email addresses of the authors.

References

Agustoni, A., & Maretti, M. (2019). Towards a global ecology of migration: an introduction to climatic-environmental migration. International Review of Sociology, 29(2), 125–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2019.1641262

Ahmed, N., Islam, M. N., Hasan, M. F., Motahar, T., & Sujauddin, M. (2018). Understanding the political ecology of forced migration and deforestation through a multi-algorithm classification approach: the case of Rohingya displacement in the southeastern border region of Bangladesh. Geology, Ecology, and Landscapes, 3(4), 282-294. https://doi.org/10.1080/24749508.2018.1558025

Alston, Philip. (2019). Climate change and poverty: report of the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights. ONU. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3810720?v=pdf#files.

De Haas, H. (2020, January 31). Climate refugees: The fabrication of a migration threat [Blog]. Hein de Haas. https://heindehaas.blogspot.com/2020/01/climate-refugees-fabrication-of.html

Federici, S. (2004). Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. Autonomedia.

Hamouchene, H., & Sandwell, K. (2023). Dismantling Green Colonialism: Energy and Climate Justice in the Arab Region. Pluto.

Glassman, Jim. (1992). Counter-Insurgency, Ecocide and the Production of Refugees, Warfare As A Tool of Modernization. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees / Refuge: Revue Canadienne Sur Les Réfugiés, 12(1), 27-30.

Long, J. (2024). Reckoning climate apartheid. Political Geography, 112, 103117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2024.103117.

Moore, J. W. (2017). The Capitalocene Part II: accumulation by appropriation and the centrality of unpaid work/energy. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 45(2), 237–279. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1272587

Natarajan, N., Brickell, K., & Parsons, L. (2019). Climate change adaptation and precarity across the rural–urban divide in Cambodia: Towards a ‘climate precarity’ approach. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2(4), 899-921. https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848619858155

Radel, Claudia, Schmook, Birgit, Carte, Lindsey, & Mardero, Sofia (2018). Toward a Political Ecology of Migration: Land, Labor Migration, and Climate Change in Northwestern Nicaragua. World Development, 108(C), 263-273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.04.023

Sánchez-R., Magaly, & Riosmena, Fernando. (2021). Cambio climático global, ecología política y migración. Revista de Estudios Sociales, (76), 2-6. https://doi.org/10.7440/res76.2021.01

UNEP. (2024). Damage to Gaza causing new risks to human health and long-term recovery. New UNEP assessment. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/damage-gaza-causing-new-risks-human-health-and-long-term-recovery

UNEP. (2022). UN warns of toxic environmental legacy for Ukraine, region. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/un-warns-toxic-environmental-legacy-ukraine-region

Vigil, S. (2024). Towards a feminist political ecology of migration in a changing climate. Geoforum, 155, 104076. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2024.104076

Zickgraf, C. (2021)Theorizing (im)mobility in the face of environmental change. Regional Environmental Change, 21, 126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-021-01839-2

Proposed Shedule

  1. Submission of abstracts: before March 24, 2025.
    All abstracts, in English, should be sent in Word format to the following e-mail addresses: revista.migraciones@comillas.edu, arianna.poletti@iusspavia.it y gavallone@unisa.it
  2. Abstracts will have a maximum of 500 words and must include the following information and structure: author/s, affiliation, e-mail, abstract (title, objectives and theoretical approach, methodology, results and conclusions).
  3. Authors will be notified of the result on April 1st, 2025.
  4. Final submission of articles: once the abstract proposal has been accepted, the full text, in English, must be submitted via the journal's website before September 1st, 2025 for evaluation.
    https://revistas.comillas.edu/index.php/revistamigraciones/about/submissions

Important Dates

  1. Call for abstracts: from  february 18, 2025 to march 24, 2025
  2. Submission of abstracts: before march 24, 2025
  3. Evaluation of abstracts received and communication to authors: April 1st, 2025
  4. Submission of articles to the journal: before September 1st, 2025
  5. Pre-evaluation of articles by the editors: September 1-15, 2025
  6. Peer review (first decision after blind evaluation): September 16, 2025 to January 10, 2026.
  7. Changes/submission of the final version of the article: February 20, 2025. In some cases a 2nd round of peer review may be required.
  8. Expected publication date of the monograph: March 2026