(Re)opening the politics of climate migration: The ‘alter-geopolitics’ of climate activists in vancouver

This paper examines the political possibilities that emerge when climate migration is understood through the lens of climate justice. By exploring the aspirations, understandings, and practices of climate activists in Vancouver, British Columbia, it shows how climate justice frameworks come to bear on the issue of climate migration in ways which challenge dominant political narratives and approaches. While these have tended to problematise, securitise, and individualise the causes and consequences of climate migration, a grassroots, activist ‘alter-geopolitics’ of climate migration foregrounds notions of dignity and solidarity, emphasising both the humanity of migrants and the chains of responsibility connecting those on the move and those not. Through this discussion, the paper offers a more just set of principles for governing climate migration, engaging alternative scales, spaces, and actors.