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. Andrew Baldwin, 2013. "Racialisation and the Figure of the Climate-Change Migrant," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(6), pages 1474-1490, June.
    3. 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.
    4. Christo Odeyemi & Takashi Sekiyama, 2022. "A Review of Climate Security Discussions in Japan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-21, July.
    5. 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.
    6. Adis Dzebo, 2019. "Effective governance of transnational adaptation initiatives," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 447-466, October.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Andrej Přívara & Magdaléna Přívarová, 2019. "Nexus between Climate Change, Displacement and Conflict: Afghanistan Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-19, October.
    10. Aidan While & Mark Whitehead, 2013. "Cities, Urbanisation and Climate Change," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(7), pages 1325-1331, May.
    11. Bishawjit Mallick & Joachim Vogt, 2014. "Population displacement after cyclone and its consequences: empirical evidence from coastal Bangladesh," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 73(2), pages 191-212, September.
    12. Christiane Fröhlich & Giovanni Bettini, 2017. "Where Next? Climate Change, Migration, and the (Bio)politics of Adaptation," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 8, pages 33-39, February.
    13. Louis Lebel & Jianchu Xu & Ram Bastakoti & Amrita Lamba, 2010. "Pursuits of adaptiveness in the shared rivers of Monsoon Asia," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 355-375, December.
    14. Mahir Yazar, 2024. "Episodic populist backlashes against urban climate actions," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(12), pages 2452-2466, September.
    15. David W. Cash & Patricio G. Belloy, 2020. "Salience, Credibility and Legitimacy in a Rapidly Shifting World of Knowledge and Action," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-15, September.
    16. repec:bla:glopol:v:8:y:2017:i:s1:p:33-39 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Karl M. Wantzen & Carlos Bernardo Mascarenhas Alves & Sidia Diaouma Badiane & Raita Bala & Martín Blettler & Marcos Callisto & Yixin Cao & Melanie Kolb & G. Mathias Kondolf & Marina Fernandes Leite & , 2019. "Urban Stream and Wetland Restoration in the Global South—A DPSIR Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-48, September.
    18. Gómez, O.A., 2013. "Climate change and migration," ISS Working Papers - General Series 50161, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.
    21. 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.

    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.