Nets, not boxes: a critical typology of climate (im)mobilities policy clusters in oceanic states

Abstract There is an ongoing and increasingly pressing need to better understand the drivers, patterns, and required support structures for people, households, and communities engaging with decisions around climate-related (im)mobilities. Rather than imposing a restrictive or exclusionary framework of mobility types onto this phenomenon, we propose a critical typology of (im)mobility policy clusters. Demonstrating our proposal through examples across Oceania, we engage the powerful metaphor of nets as socially, culturally, and practically important objects to reframe what could be an exclusive typology to one of inclusive, overlapping, and mutually supportive policy clusters. We identify twelve policy clusters where specific provisions could increase the supportive and/or protective capacities of state policies regarding people considering (im)mobility. These clusters are intended to be overlapping nets, where people faced with (im)mobilities can move from interacting with one policy cluster to another, based on their own decision-making and (im)mobility circumstances. Agency is central to this analysis. Making these moves allows us to counter harmful narratives of climate refugees that confer vulnerability and ostracize affected communities, instead embracing the complexities offered by broader terminology like climate mobilities. However, we do so in a practical way so as to enable policy-makers to understand and adapt to the specific protection needs of certain contexts and circumstances to best support people to make their own choices about how they engage in specific forms of (im)mobilities across a range of situations.