The Intersectionality of Racism, Globalization, Climate Change, and Forced Migration
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Monthly Review | The Feminization of Migration
Green grabbing-induced displacement | 29 | Routledge Handbook of Envir
<aside> 💡 I would like to draw attention to the intergenerational trauma of forced migration. In Global Health Watch’s “Structural Roots of Migration”, they write, “Over the past four decades, globalization and neoliberal economic policies have become one of the most significant forces fuelling migration, if not the most important.” I would argue that the migration crisis has had a much longer history driven by centuries of colonialism and imperialism. While reading this week’s pieces, it’s difficult not to think of my own experiences and the marketing of the pursuit of “the American dream”. My grandparents (as kids) fled to Hong Kong as imperialism waged war in their village. In a British-colonized city, my parents (as kids) grew up in near-poverty hardly spending time with their own parents because they had to travel a lot for work. Then my parents immigrated to America for a better future, meaning higher income and more job opportunities than Hong Kong could provide at the time. Even for myself, I didn’t grow up with a present father because he had to live elsewhere for work for a decade in order to provide for the family.
And while my family’s experiences weren’t necessarily driven by the climate crisis directly, it was still driven by the same capitalist and neoliberal power structures. I also couldn’t help but think of how these power structures treat care work while reading Gunduz’s “The Feminization of Migration, Care and the New Emotional Imperialism”. I’d like to highlight these two quotes:
“The transnational labor market leads to a new trend “as women who normally care for the young, the old, and the sick in their own poor countries move to care for the young, the old, and the sick in rich countries…It’s care drain.”
“Care drain…leads to a global redistribution or even a maldistribution of women’s care labor power…a desertification of Third World caregivers and the emotional commons takes place.”
In high-income “developed” countries, how can we prioritize intergenerational care instead of profit? Care for ourselves, for our families, and for others?
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