Across the world human-induced climate change is transforming the planet’s environments and ecosystems and affecting migratory movements of people and animals. At the same time, migratory movements can transform local environments by putting pressure on finite resources and exacerbating the conditions for environmental damage. In this context, the phenomenon of ‘climate refugees’ has emerged prominently among other forms of mobility. Politics has also taken on transnational dimensions with social movements mobilising between continents calling on their respective governments to do more to reduce fossil-fuel dependency.

 

In this issue, we examine this complex and multidimensional connection between migration, (im)mobilities and the planet’s changing climate. From the Pacific Islands to the Gulf of Mexico, our authors look into how communities and governments respond to climate challenges and decide to move or to stay. We test the current legal framework for refugees to see if climate-induced migrants could fit into it, and we warn about the dangers of xenophobic discourse trying to penetrate areas of the movement for climate justice. Our first long read sheds light into the ways in which mobility is tied to the functioning of fossil fuel industries too.

 

This fourth edition of Routed also features a story about passport inequality among PhD students; an analysis of the recent European elections focused on migration; and a piece on the politics of migration data, which is the product of a collaboration between Routed Magazine and The Transatlantic Puzzle.

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