[Commlist] Funded PhD scholarship - Climate Migrants, Mobility and Governance Across Emergent Political and Policy Terrains

Project title: Climate Migrants, Mobility and Governance Across Emergent 
Political and Policy Terrains


Project in brief (applicant to identify specific focus):
This interdisciplinary study will investigate impacts of climate-related 
migration and mobility, internationally or nationally, including to or 
within the UK. It will explore ways these societal challenges are shaped 
by community ties and identities, migration and migration politics, and 
emergent climate-change policies across local, national, and 
international levels. It will examine climate-related impacts on social 
exclusion, marginalisation, mobility, and people’s changing relations 
with politics, science, and the state; policy concerns to address 
climate-related mobility and migration; and ethical issues in the 
governance of climate-related displacement. It will inform action around 
policy implementation that can be shared regionally, nationally, and 
internationally. We are seeking students with a relevant first degree 
(e.g. anthropology, development studies, law, geography, similar); and 
practical experience e.g. NGOs, community work. The fieldwork location 
is the applicant’s choice.
Key themes: climate migration, displacement, mobility, marginalised 
communities
Project in detail:
The most widely cited prediction for climate migrants (also “climate 
refugees”) is 200+ million by 2050 (UNHCR 2020). Worsening climate 
change impacts are producing migrants and displacees within and across 
national borders, with for example Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and 
Latin America estimated to have 140 million+ internal migrants by 2050 
(World Bank 2018). While causal relationships between climate-change, 
armed conflict, and asylum-seeking are also established - linking 
climate change to Europe’s migrant “crisis” (Guy et al 2019)—slow onset 
hazards such as heat are driving the mobility of urban populations 
across Asia (Zander et al 2018); and rising sea levels have seen British 
villages decommissioned, with their ‘viability’ determined by the cost 
of coastal defence versus resettlement (House of Lords 2019). In light 
of research showing that ‘climate migrants’ have inadequate legal 
protection or recognition (Apap 2019), this interdisciplinary project 
seeks to re-imagine policy from the perspective of migrants, with the 
aim to explore connections between policy practice, identities, and 
exclusions in vulnerable and marginal communities. It will explore how 
experiences of climate change mobility vary according to national, 
social and economic location; and are shaped by political, community, 
media, and policy representations and responses. Particular focus will 
be placed on where migrants and communities experience gaps in legal and 
community protection, and on how they propose to fill these gaps. The 
knowledge and inter-sectorial networks generated will support situated 
understandings of mobility in climate-affected communities, and the 
ethical governance of climate-related mobility.
Potential questions: (1) How do the dramatic or slow-onset effects of 
climate change affect people’s mobility, relationships to their 
communities and the state, and other national, social, identity and 
class exclusions (including gender)? (Community) (2) How can policy 
suggestions emerging from communities displaced as a result of climate 
change be leveraged for their integration; and for sustainable policy 
development at multiple levels? (Social policy) (3) What ethical 
concerns are raised firstly by the logic that confers responsibility for 
inter/national migration or resettlement on individuals, the state, and 
supra-state actors—and secondly, by their governance as climate-related? 
(Ethics)

Methods Interpretive and thematic approaches including in-depth 
interviews, focus groups with migrants and affected communities, NGO and 
community service providers, and ethnographic insights in affected 
settings will produce critical bridgework between the voices and 
experiences of migrants, and those of service providers. The study may 
involve single or multi-sited methods, co-produced research, and a 
national, international, or comparative focus.

Supervisors: Dr Nichola Khan, and Dr Roxana Cavalcanti, School of 
Humanities and Social Science; Professor Julie Doyle, School of Art and 
Media. Khan and Doyle are Directors of the Centre for Spatial 
Environmental and Cultural Politics (SECP) which offers a supportive, 
thriving Phd student environment. Dr Khan has significant research 
expertise in migration, mobilities, and refugees; Professor Doyle has 
expertise in media and communication perspectives on climate change. Dr 
Cavalcanti works on violence, justice, and marginalized communities in 
the Global South.

Deadline for application 7 July 2021, 1600.

Expected interview dates Monday 19 July 2021

Research centre Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics 
https://www.brighton.ac.uk/secp/index.aspx
Funding and application details here: 
https://www.brighton.ac.uk/research-and-enterprise/postgraduate-research-degrees/funding-opportunities-and-studentships/2021-uob-climate-migrants-mobility-governance.aspx

Due to the post’s funding it is only open to home applicants as defined 
by the Fees Regulations.

Queries about project can be sent to Dr Nichola Khan ((N.Khan /at/ brighton.ac.uk))

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