‘I was born here, I will die here’: climate change and migration decisions from coastal and insular Guinea-Bissau

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper shows how coastal and island peoples of Guinea-Bissau continue to prefer staying put over migrating when faced with manifestations of climate change and environmental disrepair. This reaction contradicts widely held interpretations of climate migration, which emphasize anti-immigrant sentiments and border regimes. We examine how historically marginalized Bissau-Guineans respond to slow-onset climate and environmental events in the face of political jeopardy and inadequate governance. We find that while their most pressing livelihood challenges remain politically unaddressed, they mobilize collectively in the absence of state support. While seasonal and temporary migration improves households' conditions, communal togetherness and bonding reinforce a vital sense of security, allowing them to stay put. Coping with present and future climate and environmental changes depends on whether or not people's lives continue to be undermined through the creation and reproduction of vulnerability. To overcome the long-standing socio-economic and political dysfunctions overwhelming Bissau-Guineans, we highlight the urgency for an overturn of the state’s attitudes and actions; of the dependency and cultural asymmetries by Western practices; and of the unjust support of civil society. Failure to provide basic requirements of good governance, self-reliance and communal support may no longer enable people to stay where they wish to.