The Crisis of Climate and Immigration in Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island

Abstract

Human migration, a socio-political phenomenon in contemporary times, refers to the journey of people across international borders or within their own country. Such journeys arise from varied ecological, social, political, religious, and economic factors. “In this globalize (sic) world, where everything seems to be global, migration is also changing its nature and forms which it takes” (UKEssays, 2018, para. 4). Even though human migration is not new, “undocumented, unauthorized, or illegal migration is a recent phenomenon” (Donato & Massey, 2016, p. 9). Illegal immigrants who undergo political unrest and social turmoil during migration are often sufferers of identity crisis, imprisonment, torture, and exploitation through bonded labour. Falsification of identity papers, drug and arms trafficking, forced prostitution, and human trafficking are some salient features of undocumented migration throughout the world. Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island (2019) undertakes an exploratory journey into the present globalized world of anthropogenic climate metamorphoses that trigger excruciating illegal migrations from the Indian Sundarbans, the mangrove region. It is also the saga of many other undocumented migrants from various developing countries, who illegally migrate to the West in search of employment and opportunity but miserably fall victims to human trafficking, xenophobia, and imprisonment. The paper focuses on the socio-economic, political, and climatological reasons for, and the consequences of, the illegal migrations of the underprivileged people portrayed in the text under discussion, by situating them within the framework of the contemporary era of capitalist globalization.