Paper short abstract:

I offer a post-colonial perspective to human (im)mobility in the context of climate change and disasters. My paper will draw on existing literature on 'inherent vulnerability' to discuss how constraints of small size and colonial legacies impact state-based policy options for Caribbean SIDS.

Paper long abstract:

Incidences of cross-border displacement within the context of disasters have increased over the last decade in the Anglo-phone Caribbean. Ad hoc measures have emerged through intra-regional mobility frameworks to accommodate these movements, and there has been a growing discourse around human mobility within the context of climate change propelled by external donor agencies. However, unlike the Pacific, where arrangements with metropole states have been crafted as potential responses to climate-induced migration in the near and long-term, the Caribbean has not developed similar initiatives. This paper explores the reasons for this seeming policy deficit, given the region’s extreme vulnerability to climate change. The paper questions whether, within the context of hypermobility – rates of emigration from the region are some of the highest globally, such a pre-emptive policy approach is necessary. Secondly, the paper considers the possibilities for immobile populations, which are left behind during disasters, due to geophysical limitations of small size. Are there viable solutions for these small states which face multi-dimensional vulnerabilities? The paper draws on four country case studies, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Montserrat, to argue that inherent vulnerabilities combined with colonial legacies, impact state-based policy options with respect to (im)mobile populations affected by climate change and disasters. By considering the mobility spectrum in the range of state-based policy responses to climate change and disasters in the Caribbean, this paper makes a valuable contribution to the discourse on post-coloniality and the resilience (and viability) of small island developing states.