Future of climate created refugees: resilience and adaptation

This is an in-person event in the Tent at St Ethelburga’s Centre for peacemakers, for people with lived experience or family heritage of displacement, for activists and organisers, researchers, academics and students.  All are welcome. A light, vegetarian lunch in included.

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How do we lean in to the great challenges of our time without losing ourselves to grief and overwhelm?

How do we navigate the vastness of these great and pressing themes of climate change and migration?

What inner resources can we, or do we draw on in times of difficulty to maintain a steady course?

Where do we want to show up as leaders in our families, neighbourhoods and communities?

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Climate change and migration are two of the most pressing issues of our times, yet they are often considered distinct and separate in the context of activism and conversation, especially in our Western context.  Research is a growing area bringing these two themes together, so too the direct experience of those living on the front lines. Is it possible to bring these important themes closer together in our minds and conversations with researchers, activists, displaced people, convenors – and friends and family? Closer together to support those seeking sanctuary and draw communities together to withstand change and difference.

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The aim of the event is not to come away with neat answers, but to listen and to question, and to leave with more awareness and curiosity that serves our different perspectives.

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This is a small event to allow for facilitated workshop activities, whole group and small group conversation, so please book places soon.

The event content will include the following.  

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Context setting:

• An overview of the scale and situation.
• An overview of the UN position and meta narrative on ‘Climate Refugee’

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An exploration of the connection to, and between the themes of climate change and migration which may include stories of:

• lived experiences from different places in the world
• grief for the loss of land, ecology, culture and home
• concerns from the frontlines
• initiatives and adaptations from the frontlines

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A closing with an action to take; a buddy to check in with and a view to future work.

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Contributors and contributions (more forthcoming):

Alumni of the ‘Refugees as Rebuilders’ programme of Initiatives of Change.

Dr Rita Issa.  Dr Issa is an NHS GP and research fellow at the UCL Institute for Global Health, studying the intersections of climate change, migration and health. She has previously worked as a humanitarian medic for MSF and WHO, and has co-founded a number of advocacy and activist organisations campaigning on migrant rights, climate change, and health justice and access. She’s a frequent voice in the media and a columnist for the Independent, most recently writing a series on the importance of our oceans for human and planetary wellbeing from her time aboard the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise. She’s co-editor of the ‘Handbook of Refugee Health’ and the upcoming text ‘Health, Resistance and Activism’. www.dritaissa.com | twitter.com/DrRitaIssa

This event is a collaboration with Initiatives of Change’ project, ‘Refugees as Rebuilders’ and marks World Refugee Day.    

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