“Not Your Climate Refugees”: A Maldivian Perspective on Migration and Adaptation

Many reports of low-lying islands dealing with climate change impacts presume that forced migration is the expected and inevitable response, leading to the theorization of climate migration (sometimes termed ‘climigration’) for islanders. In reality, islanders tend to express a preference for staying in their homes and adapting, as demonstrated by Maldives. Through a longitudinal study involving on-site research in 2013, 2017, and 2023, we conducted 38 interviews with 25 Maldivian leaders. The interviews conducted during this time period document a shift from assuming mass migration due to climate change to a preference for staying in the country by adapting, especially through the construction of artificial islands. Low-lying islands facing the impacts of climate change should not assume that forced migration is inevitable because islanders can and, as our research shows, do make every effort to adapt locally instead of going elsewhere.