Climate Change, Neoliberalism, and Migration: Mexican Sons of Peasants on the Beach

• Author: Tamar Diana Wilson
• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X20951800
• Subject Matter: Articles

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https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X20951800

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 235, Vol. 47 No. 6, November 2020, 20–35

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X20951800

© 2020 Latin American Perspectives

Climate Change, Neoliberalism, and Migration

Mexican Sons of Peasants on the Beach

by

Tamar Diana Wilson

Climate change and neoliberal policies in Mexico have been fomenting migration by

campesinos and their sons. This migration is primarily internal, to cities and tourist

centers, where migrants engage in informal and semi-informal income-generating activi-

ties. Interviews with 32 beach vendors, sons of campesinos, in Cabo San Lucas reflect these

two drivers of migration: while most reported that they would like to farm, they identified

drought and lack of government aid as major difficulties for farmers in their hometowns.

El cambio climático y las políticas neoliberales en México han fomentado la migración

de campesinos y sus hijos. Esta migración mayoritariamente interna se dirige a ciudades

y centros turísticos, donde los migrantes participan en actividades informales y semifor-

males para generar ingresos. Entrevistas con 32 vendedores de playa en Cabo San Lucas,

todos ellos hijos de campesinos, reflejan el efecto de los mencionados impulsores migración:

aunque la mayoría de los entrevistados informó que le gustaría cultivar sus tierras, la

sequía y la falta de apoyo gubernamental se mencionaron como dos grandes obstáculos a

la agricultura en sus lugares de origen.

Keywords: Climate-induced migration, Neoliberalism, Peasants, Beach vendors

For more than two decades scholars concerned with climate change and its

relationship to patterns of migration have developed concepts such as “climate

refugees,” “climate-induced migration,” “climate change migration,” “envi-

ronmental refugees,” and “environmentally induced migration.” A typical

definition of “climate refugees” is that of Biermann and Boas (2010: 67): “peo-

ple who have to leave their habitats, immediately or in the near future, because

of sudden or gradual alterations in their natural environment related to at least

one of three impacts of climate change: sea-level rise, extreme weather events,

or drought and water scarcity.” Not all scholars or international agencies are

comfortable with the term “refugees” for describing environmentally induced

migration. The International Organization for Migration (IOM, 2014: 28), for

example, points out that under the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the

Status of Refugees, the term designates people who flee across borders because

of fear of persecution. The IOM defines “environmental migrants” as “persons

or groups of persons who, for compelling reasons of sudden or progressive

Tamar Diana Wilson is the author of Economic Life of Mexican Beach Vendors: Acapulco, Puerto

Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas (2012) and has published articles about beach vendors in Research in

Economic Anthropology, Urban Anthropology, North American Dialogue, Latin American Perspectives,

and other journals. She has lived in Cabo San Lucas since 1994.

951800LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X20951800Latin American PerspectivesWilson / Climate Change, Neoliberalism, and Migration

research-article2020

Wilson / CLIMATE CHANGE, NEOLIBERALISM, AND MIGRATION 21

changes in the environment that adversely affect their lives or living condi-

tions, are obliged to leave their homes or choose to do so, either temporarily or

permanently, and who move either within the country or abroad” (2014: 6; see

also Laczko and Aghazarm, 2009: 19). Thus, many who are under pressure from

environmental degradation do not flee across borders, and there is no persecu-

tion involved.

Although much of the literature on the subject concentrates almost exclu-

sively on migration induced by climate change, others have pointed out the

“double exposure” to which small farmers in the South are subjected—climate

change and the pressures of globalization (including neoliberalism and struc-

tural adjustment) (Eakin, 2005: 1923–1925; O’Brien and Leichenko, 2000).

According to O’Brien and Leichenko (2000: 227), “double exposure refers to

cases where a particular region, sector, ecosystem or social group is confronted

by both climate change and economic globalization. It recognizes that climate

impacts are influenced not only by current socioeconomic trends, but also by

structural economic changes that are organizing economic activities at the

global level.” They point out that there are both winners and losers: in some

cases there will be successes and accumulation and in others failures and

impoverishment. Those who are doubly impacted will lose the most (O’Brien

and Leichenko, 2000: 222–223, 230).

In the first section of this paper the effects of climate change on migration,

especially from drought-stricken areas of Mexico, are discussed. In the second

section, some of the stresses of neoliberal globalization on small farmers in

Mexico are addressed. In the third section, two ways in which neoliberalization

has promoted climate change—and thus climate change migration—will be

examined. In the fourth section the problems facing small farmers, as related

by 32 beach vendors who are sons of campesinos interviewed in Cabo San

Lucas, Mexico, are briefly presented.

Climate-Change-induCed migration

Three clusters of climate change/global warming situations have been seen

as promoting migration: rising sea levels, leading to permanent outmigration

from the villages affected; extreme weather events such as tornados and flood-

ing, which often lead only to temporary migration until conditions improve;

and drought and desertification, which may foster permanent or temporary

migration or lead to the migration of a family member depended upon to send

remittances to overcome the loss of income or use-values from farming

(Bardsley and Hugo, 2010: 246; Biermann and Boas, 2010: 67; Tacoli, 2009: 517–

519). In the case of drought and desertification, the effects of climate change on

mobility are gradual rather than abrupt.

Focusing on Asia and the Pacific region, Biermann and Boas (2010: 246)

argue that whereas extreme weather events may cause major but temporary

displacement of persons, with gradual environmental deterioration migration

patterns are more complex: “A common coping mechanism to a decline in local

productive resources in rural Asia and the Pacific is for families to deploy some

of their labour to other labour markets, especially in cities, but also increasingly