IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v42y2024i6p941-957.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The perfect (shit)storm: Discourses around the proposal to introduce a ‘climate passport’ in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah Louise Nash

Abstract

Since 2017 a debate has been ongoing in Germany around a proposal by the Green Party to introduce a ‘climate passport’ that would confer citizenship-like rights to people most likely to be displaced due to climate change. The debate, ranging from solidaristic work to open hostility, is highly Eurocentric, with the German border and affected people’s potential interactions with it providing a central ordering node in the debate. German voices and perspectives are foregrounded, and Germany is placed in a problem-solver position in relation to affected communities. By doing so, the positioning of Germany as able to control and define future acceptable human mobilities is centred. Affected people are positioned as the ‘other,’ which oscillates between Pacific Islanders and Africans depending on the speaker. Inhabitants of Pacific Islands are identified as recipients of the climate passport, as vulnerable individuals whose countries will inevitably be erased from the map by climate change. Africans, on the other hand, are portrayed as economic migrants waiting to take advantage of climate-related residency permits to migrate to Europe. Based on this analysis, I argue that the Eurocentrism of well-intentioned policy proposals to protect people forced to move in the context of climate change is a blind spot in policy circles and research that demands further attention.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Louise Nash, 2024. "The perfect (shit)storm: Discourses around the proposal to introduce a ‘climate passport’ in Germany," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 42(6), pages 941-957, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:42:y:2024:i:6:p:941-957
    DOI: 10.1177/23996544231216015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23996544231216015
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/23996544231216015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Felix Mantz, 2019. "Decolonizing the IPE syllabus: Eurocentrism and the coloniality of knowledge in International Political Economy," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(6), pages 1361-1378, November.
    2. Bernhard Forchtner, 2019. "Climate change and the far right," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(5), September.
    3. Frank Biermann & Ingrid Boas, 2010. "Preparing for a Warmer World: Towards a Global Governance System to Protect Climate Refugees," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 10(1), pages 60-88, February.
    4. Andrew Baldwin, 2017. "Climate change, migration, and the crisis of humanism," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(3), May.
    5. Elin Jakobsson, 2021. "How Climate-Induced Migration Entered the UN Policy Agenda in 2007–2010: A Multiple Streams Assessment," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 16-26.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sarah M. Munoz, 2021. "Environmental Mobility in a Polarized World: Questioning the Pertinence of the “Climate Refugee” Label for Pacific Islanders," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1271-1284, December.
    2. Bimal Kanti Paul & Munshi Khaledur Rahman & Max Lu & Thomas W. Crawford, 2022. "Household Migration and Intentions for Future Migration in the Climate Change Vulnerable Lower Meghna Estuary of Coastal Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-17, April.
    3. Clark Gray & Richard Bilsborrow, 2013. "Environmental Influences on Human Migration in Rural Ecuador," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(4), pages 1217-1241, August.
    4. World Bank Group, 2015. "Participatory and Community-Driven Development in Urban Areas," World Bank Publications - Reports 24078, The World Bank Group.
    5. Andrew Baldwin, 2013. "Racialisation and the Figure of the Climate-Change Migrant," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(6), pages 1474-1490, June.
    6. Edward Anthony Koning & Neeraj Kaushal, 2024. "The Role of Politics in Public Views About Immigrants," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 2095-2122, December.
    7. Christo Odeyemi & Takashi Sekiyama, 2022. "A Review of Climate Security Discussions in Japan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-21, July.
    8. Rosalind Pidcock & Kate Heath & Lydia Messling & Susie Wang & Anna Pirani & Sarah Connors & Adam Corner & Christopher Shaw & Melissa Gomis, 2021. "Evaluating effective public engagement: local stories from a global network of IPCC scientists," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 168(3), pages 1-22, October.
    9. Renlu Qiao & Shuo Gao & Xiaochang Liu & Li Xia & Guobin Zhang & Xi Meng & Zhiyu Liu & Mo Wang & Shiqi Zhou & Zhiqiang Wu, 2024. "Understanding the global subnational migration patterns driven by hydrological intrusion exposure," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    10. Peres, Anna Paula & Neves, Nathalia Clyo Rizzo de Freitas & Taddei, Renzo, 2020. "Atitudes e percepções de gestores ambientais da Zona Costeira de SP frente às mudanças climáticas," Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural (RESR), Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural, vol. 58(2), January.
    11. Adis Dzebo, 2019. "Effective governance of transnational adaptation initiatives," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 447-466, October.
    12. Sælen, Håkon Grøn & Aasen, Marianne, 2023. "Exploring public opposition and support across different climate policies: Poles apart?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    13. Logan Cochrane & Samuel O Oloruntoba, 2021. "Whose voice matters in the teaching and learning of IPE? Implications for policy and policy making [The path of development for underdeveloped countries and marxism speech]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 40(4), pages 545-564.
    14. Merve Suzan ILIK BİLBEN, 2018. "Antropojenik İklim Değişikliği Bağlamında Göç Tartışmaları," Journal of Social Policy Conferences, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 0(75), pages 237-268, December.
    15. Mikiyasu Nakayama & Hirotaka Fujibayashi & Nagisa Yoshioka, 2016. "Applying Past Lessons Learned to the Relocation of Climate Change Induced Transboundary Displaced Persons," International Journal of Social Science Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 4(2), pages 66-77, September.
    16. Marco Letta & Pierluigi Montalbano & Adriana Paolantonio, 2024. "Understanding the climate change‐migration nexus through the lens of household surveys: An empirical review to assess data gaps," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 1234-1275, September.
    17. Paul Clements, 2024. "International Climate Migrant Policy and Estimates of Climate Migration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-18, November.
    18. Chlouba,Vladimir & Mukim,Megha & Zaveri,Esha Dilip, 2023. "After Big Droughts Come Big Cities : Does Drought Drive Urbanization?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10408, The World Bank.
    19. Piotr Żuk & Paweł Żuk, 2024. "The role of trust, information and legal stability in the development of renewable energy: the analysis of non-economic factors affecting entrepreneurs’ investments in green energy in Poland," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(7), pages 18499-18534, July.
    20. Erika Weinthal & Neda Zawahri & Jeannie Sowers, 2015. "Securitizing Water, Climate, and Migration in Israel, Jordan, and Syria," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 293-307, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:42:y:2024:i:6:p:941-957. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.