Wealthy nations respond to climate refugees by fortifying borders rather than addressing causes

Evidence

The Maldives is on the brink of becoming the first nation where the entire population would be climate refugees; even with a mere 400,000 citizens, the prospect of a climate-driven exodus on that scale constitutes a logistical nightmare and foreshadows an age of insurgent climate refugees on a far more threatening, chaotic scale. Indeed, a 2003 Pentagon report warned of the security threat posed by millions of climate refugees, predicting that rich nations like the United States would have to respond by “building defensive fortresses around their countries.” This conventional neoliberal response—wall off the wealthy, raise the walls of denial—is classic short-termism, a security strategy built on the illusory, foundational assumption that addressing the causes of slow violence can be infinitely deferred. — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 809

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts with the desert-oasis and dam chapters’ patterns of the powerful segregating themselves from climate-dispossessed communities. — connects to: Wealthy regions refused refugees while poorer regions bore catastrophic losses — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1722; Solving one refugee crisis creates a new category of refugees; Right-wing neoliberals justify border closure through utility-of-human-capital logic — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 30 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Wealthy regions refused refugees while poorer regions bore catastrophic losses #corroborates (0.85) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1722
• Right-wing neoliberals justify border closure through utility-of-human-capital logic #corroborates (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 30
• Solving one refugee crisis creates a new category of refugees #expands (0.72)
• Europe’s contested borders function to separate it from communist and Islamic alienness #corroborates (0.72) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 831