Climate Routes
The project uses visual art to show the possible relationship between climate change and migration both to potential ‘climate refugees’ and to the broader public, in order to foster awareness on this still scarcely understood category
Laveno-Mombello | Started on 01/03/2023 – Concluded on 31/12/2025
Who are the climate migrants? Despite the now scientifically demonstrated relationship between climate change and migration; to date, we know little about these people, and there is not an agreed category and consequent legal protection to those who are forced to move for reasons related to climate impacts.The project aims to answer precisely these questions, activating a data collection campaign from below, directly from migrants that potentially lived experiences of climate displacement. Migrants hold valuable knowledge for understanding the multiple underlying causes of migration, which may also include climatic factors. To identify and enhance their knowledge, we need reliable channels in which to share this information but also spaces that are emotionally welcoming for people that are in a condition of distress like migrants.
We proposed to use visual art to show the possible relationship between climate change and migration both to potential climate refugees and to the broader public, in order to foster awareness. In particular, we created a series of climate-displacement scenarios which we used to illustrate to migrants what we meant for ‘climate displacement’. We spent considerable time to understand how to best illustrate the person ‘in the middle’ of these scenarios, making tests and in the end opting for a multitude of personas, i.e., the single woman, the family, various types of workers, but also an empty space for every person to draw themselves inside. The illustrations support a series of interviews addressed to migrants performed in collaboration with associations and reception centers, to understand climate displacement pathways. This material is also used to disseminate the research results and discuss methods with broader publics. For another stream of the research, we also produced illustrations of environmental displacement scenarios, recognizing the frequent interlinkages between climate change and environmental degradation.
More info & Social Media
https://routesofdisplacement4.webnode.page/
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19wVvIR9OSi9IkZJOGkA-qUI35muQGlMB?usp=sharing
Editor’s Note: All information published as submitted by the author(s). Minor edits may have been made to increase readability and understanding.
