Shifting the Perspective: A Political Ecology of Migration attentive to gendered and racialised inequalities

This article argues that in a world where the ecological and material consequences of climate changes are becoming increasingly tangible, mobilisation and reproduction of the dominant categories of economic migration and political asylum become problematic. While the “reflexive turn” in migration studies called for a critical assessment of the use of state-determined migration categories in migration research, the ways in which political ecology could achieve that and related implications for migration studies have been little discussed. This article seeks to uncover the epistemological and political stakes that underpin the study of climate-related migration by foregrounding the venues opened up by political ecology perspectives. The article equally outlines how discussions around climate-related migrations can serve to bridge political ecology perspectives with more established venues within migration studies, notably intersectional approaches to migration, drawing in particular on gender studies as well as analytical engagement with racialised inequalities.