Navigating Intersections and Stepping Into the In-Between Spaces
We recently introduced the Climate Migration Collaborative, ending that very first blog with a question that underpins our project:
“As our climate drastically shifts, and people migrate - both by choice and through displacement - how might we catalyse collaboration across sectors to put justice at the centre of society’s approach to climate change and migration?”
In this second blog, we’d like to explore with you how we think the Climate Migration Collaborative might work towards answering that question, and share a little more about the emerging group who are guiding this project.
Navigating Intersections and the Liminal Spaces Between
We know that the interplay between climate change and migration is complex and nuanced, and the global challenges that will arise from a changing climate and shifting migration patterns are systemic. We also know that the current neoliberal, capitalist, postcolonial institutions, structures and narratives that shape our economy as they currently stand are unlikely to provide the environment needed to centre justice in all its forms as we navigate climatic shifts and changing patterns of migration.
We will need to forge partnerships that bridge sectors and foster cross-disciplinary conversations to imagine different ways of doing things, reaching beyond our day-to-day remits to cultivate new connections and narratives that drive change towards a just future. We know this doesn’t always come easily.
So we’re seeking to shine a light on the gaps and cracks at the intersections - or liminal spaces between - climate, migration and the just transition to a sustainable economy, cutting through complexity to generate understanding at these intersections, amplifying diverse narratives through storytelling and deliberative democracy, and platforming models for social infrastructure that connect and disrupt as we transition to a just and green economy.
In doing so, we’re seeking to adopt the role of cultivator of connections and convenor of ideas and people, and see where this curiosity takes us in terms of partnerships, projects and co-creation. We do this with a deep respect for the work that has gone before, and continues (read about the lineage of our work below).
First Steps
Specifically, we expect that our early steps will include:
Co-creating and testing a cross-sectoral / systems framework as a route to building understanding around the complex intersections of climate change and migration in the UK context. A version 1.0 exists and we would like to invite others to bring their diverse perspectives and expertise to this framework, deepening and enriching it as a kind of organising framework around which to gather and work. We’ll talk more about what we hope this framework could be, and how it can serve us collectively, in our next blog.
Exploring the idea of a network that brings together partners who each do brilliant work in their own sector, bridging the gaps between them and brokering new insights into how their collective contributions make up a holistic rights-based response to evolving patterns of migration, underpinned by climate justice and racial justice.
Overall, our focus is on centring justice as we anticipate, prepare for and welcome people migrating within and into the UK - though we expect that any learning generated from the collaborative could be applied globally.
We want to start building and demonstrating now, responding to hostile narratives with hopeful action and creating momentum and energy around new ideas.
This is likely to involve:
Field-building at climate / migration / new economy intersection
Creating understanding of inter-connected themes from the ground-up, unlocking intersectional collaborations and celebrating pioneering ideas
Catalysing action in policy and practice at these intersections
At this point, we are relatively open-minded as to the tangible outputs of this project and are exploring a range of possibilities, including a co-authored blog series, podcast, events, action research, citizen’s assemblies and storytelling.
We invite friends and collaborators to join us and contribute in ways that are aligned with their wider work. We are embracing emergence rather than fixing on a narrowly defined impact at this stage. This feels right in the context of such large-scale societal challenges, and speaks to our desire to go where we find energy and allies in this emerging field. Do reach out to us with your ideas.
Who We Are
We are a growing collective.
I ,Julia, am the lead initiator of this project. As a child, I was lucky to live in three different continents before I was ten years old and as a result, I understood from an early age the difference between an ‘expat’ and a ‘migrant’. My white skin afforded me the privileged label of expat whilst those racialised as black or brown were consigned the decidedly less privileged label of migrant. The sense of injustice and dissonance arising from these very early experiences led me to working internationally, mainly in the charity/NGO sector and most recently as CEO of a social enterprise working with refugees globally. Yet I sat with growing discomfort at the white saviorism complex at the heart of the sector. So in 2022, I founded a consultancy practice, Pragmatic Radicals, re-focusing on projects closer to home in the UK, hoping that freelance work would eventually give me the space to explore this emergent project, combining my generalist skills spotting patterns and ‘connecting of dots’ across systems with a passion for catalysing transformative partnerships.
I’m joined by a small group of curious, passionate collaborators offering their expertise, constructive challenge and support.
Dami is a community organiser and expert advisor to the migration sector. She is the Co-Founder of We Belong, an organisation that fights for the rights of young migrants in the UK, where she won major national campaigns. She’s an Eisenhower Youth Fellow and has spoken out worldwide against the UK’s hostile environment towards migrants. She left We Belong in 2021 to complete her undergraduate degree in psychology and plans to pursue further studies, with an interest in climate, migration and mental health.
Theo is a learning facilitator and participation consultant, working with organisations to embed more participatory ways of working, informed by lived experience, into their culture and structure. Her work spans co-developing resources, training, peer learning and explorations of structural power dynamics. She founded renowned grassroots organisation Xenia, which brings together women from different backgrounds to connect, share and learn, and was also the initiator of ACT! A Festival for Social Change.
Rita is an activist physician, humanitarian and academic working to empower community-led action on the intersects of climate change, migration, health and justice. Having led the UCL Institute for Global Health work stream on the intersections of climate change, migration and health in partnership with Lancet Migration, she is now a Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholar at UEA as part of the Critical Decade programme. Rita was awarded the London Mayor’s Sustainable City Award “Public Sector Changemaker of the Year 2022”. Rita is founder of Doctors for Extinction Rebellion as well as Planetary.Health.
Amira is a researcher and evaluator, having previously worked at NCVO and The Social Innovation Partnership. She has a keen interest in both climate and migration and is currently training as a Work that Reconnects facilitator. Amira also has some experience in systems mapping and systems change theory which she hopes to bring to the work.
Our group is still forming and growing. We warmly welcome expressions of interest from others who would like to explore these questions with us. Get in touch with us via the message button below or drop a line to Julia.
Lineage and Inspiration
There is a growing academic field exploring climate and migration intersections. There is equally some pioneering international work testing climate-linked migration pathways underway, climate mitigation efforts and extensive work negotiating loss and damage deals around the world.
Focus on this climate-migration intersection and what it means for British society is relatively emergent, but is not without precedent. Climate Outreach and the Climate and Migration Coalition which they incubated, the Climate Justice Coalition, Migrants Organise and CIVIC SQUARE have been particular sources of inspiration to the Collaborative.
We feel particularly indebted to Gaia Vince, author of Nomad Century, who showed us how we can show up and work towards a more just, equitable and regenerative world in ways that are both practical and deeply hopeful.
Join Us
Please reach out via our Substack or LinkedIn pages if you are interested in playing an active part in our work, or message us directly. As a small group of freelancers, this is currently our ‘soulful side project’ but we dream of growing it to something more. If you have time, expertise, passion or resources that you think we should know about, we would love to hear from you. Next time, we’ll be writing with specific invitations to join us in exploring the possibilities that this project might unlock further.