Central American migrant caravans and the US: investigating the consequences of overlooking the climate-displacement nexus
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30612/rmufgd.v10i19.12953Keywords:
Climate migration, Climate mobility, Central America.Abstract
The objective of this paper is to reflect upon the political and analytical consequences of overlooking the climate-displacement nexus over the U.S. reaction to recent Central American migration, considering the literature on climate displacement and the U.S. historical relation to migration. Our analysis comprehends the beginning of the Central American migrants’ caravans in 2017 until the end of 2020. The paper is built from a qualitative perspective of analysis, working with primary sources such as migration and climate data reports, presidential statements, and newspaper articles on the U.S migration policies to the Central American caravans, in which it was possible to identify political and humanitarian implications that arose through the use of anti-immigration discourses and the overlooking of a connection between climate change and forced migration. Refusing to characterize these migration flows as induced by climate change, and following categorizing them as conventional economic migration, allows the U.S. to take a more sovereigntist position to the detriment of assuming its international responsibility for climate change and climate migrants.
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