(IM)MOBILITY AND INJUSTICE: THE CONSEQUENCES OF SLOW-ONSET CLIMATE CHANGE ON INVOLUNTARY NON-MIGRANTS IN AFRICA

The impact of climate change, including slow-onset effects, on migration has received due attention in recent years. In this context, the mobilities framework focuses exclusively on migration, displacement, and relocation as the only legitimate migratory response. Yet so exist those individuals who have the desire or necessity to move but lack financial or social resources to do so. In the context of Africa, these issues are compounded not just because individuals who stay in hostile environmental areas are more likely to be vulnerable, but because they are also less visible than substantial groups of people moving across the continent and beyond. Here we argue for a revised version of the mobilities framework to include the concept of involuntary non-migrants. In Africa, the inability of individuals to migrate as a result of slow-onset climate change presents significant threats to physical and mental health, negative socio-political outcomes, and costs to culture and place such as identity and ways of life.