Migrants as sustainability actors : Contrasting nation, city and migrant discourses and actions
(2024) In Global Environmental Change 87.- Abstract
Although it is widely recognized that migration is socially transformative, the potential contributions of migrants to transformations towards sustainability in their destination areas are often overlooked in mainstream discourse on environmentalism and sustainability. Here we seek to identify current narratives of migrants and sustainability across individual, urban, and national scales. Migrants are commonly framed in public policy as having no or even negative impacts on sustainability. The study hypotheses that the lived experience of sustainability by migrants within urban destinations differ from dominant discourses and perceptions of migrant populations within societies. We test and document such divergence using data from 21... (More)
Although it is widely recognized that migration is socially transformative, the potential contributions of migrants to transformations towards sustainability in their destination areas are often overlooked in mainstream discourse on environmentalism and sustainability. Here we seek to identify current narratives of migrants and sustainability across individual, urban, and national scales. Migrants are commonly framed in public policy as having no or even negative impacts on sustainability. The study hypotheses that the lived experience of sustainability by migrants within urban destinations differ from dominant discourses and perceptions of migrant populations within societies. We test and document such divergence using data from 21 interviews with key stakeholders from the city and Swedish national level, an attitudinal survey of 895 migrants and non-migrants in Malmö, Sweden; and a media analysis of local and national Swedish newspapers. Survey results show that migrants engage more extensively with a number of sustainability actions compared to non-migrants culminating in new insights on ‘migrants as sustainability actors’. By contrasting individual scale practices against urban to national sustainability narratives, the study illuminates current barriers to and the potential of migrants to play a transformative role in progress towards sustainability that is unrecognized in dominant policy discourses. To tap into this potential, the study emphasizes that sustainability policy across scales should embrace plurality and migration as fundamental parts of progress towards sustainability.
(Less)
- author
- Fry, Claudia LU ; Boyd, Emily LU ; Connaughton, Mark LU ; Adger, W. Neil ; Gavonel, Maria Franco ; Zickgraf, Caroline ; Fransen, Sonja ; Jolivet, Dominique ; Fábos, Anita H. and Carr, Ed
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-07
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Migration, Political Ecology, Sustainability Governance, Urban Sustainability
- in
- Global Environmental Change
- volume
- 87
- article number
- 102860
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85195776923
- ISSN
- 0959-3780
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102860
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 827daafc-93cd-4264-bc16-5ea960c1152d
- date added to LUP
- 2024-08-14 15:33:53
- date last changed
- 2024-08-20 14:15:26
@article{827daafc-93cd-4264-bc16-5ea960c1152d,
abstract = {{<p>Although it is widely recognized that migration is socially transformative, the potential contributions of migrants to transformations towards sustainability in their destination areas are often overlooked in mainstream discourse on environmentalism and sustainability. Here we seek to identify current narratives of migrants and sustainability across individual, urban, and national scales. Migrants are commonly framed in public policy as having no or even negative impacts on sustainability. The study hypotheses that the lived experience of sustainability by migrants within urban destinations differ from dominant discourses and perceptions of migrant populations within societies. We test and document such divergence using data from 21 interviews with key stakeholders from the city and Swedish national level, an attitudinal survey of 895 migrants and non-migrants in Malmö, Sweden; and a media analysis of local and national Swedish newspapers. Survey results show that migrants engage more extensively with a number of sustainability actions compared to non-migrants culminating in new insights on ‘migrants as sustainability actors’. By contrasting individual scale practices against urban to national sustainability narratives, the study illuminates current barriers to and the potential of migrants to play a transformative role in progress towards sustainability that is unrecognized in dominant policy discourses. To tap into this potential, the study emphasizes that sustainability policy across scales should embrace plurality and migration as fundamental parts of progress towards sustainability.</p>}},
author = {{Fry, Claudia and Boyd, Emily and Connaughton, Mark and Adger, W. Neil and Gavonel, Maria Franco and Zickgraf, Caroline and Fransen, Sonja and Jolivet, Dominique and Fábos, Anita H. and Carr, Ed}},
issn = {{0959-3780}},
keywords = {{Migration; Political Ecology; Sustainability Governance; Urban Sustainability}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Global Environmental Change}},
title = {{Migrants as sustainability actors : Contrasting nation, city and migrant discourses and actions}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102860}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102860}},
volume = {{87}},
year = {{2024}},
}