About Us
EMiGR is an open, free network of scholars interested in the study of the connections among migration, ethnicity and the environment. Members of the EMiGR network aim to share information, resources, and ideas about their research and make them available to others.
EMiGR is also interested in the creation of common projects, including workshops, conferences, grant proposals, and publications.
You can join EMiGR by following the instructions in the Member menu.
Our topics include:
- Bodies, migration, and the environment
- Climate change and migration
- Perceptions of nature
- Environmental cultures and immigrants
- Commons and immigrants
- Knowledge, ethnicity and practices of nature
- Ethnic relationships and the environment
- Cultural landscapes
Joining EMiGR
If you are interested in joining this network, please send an email to emigr.network@gmail.com and to marco.armiero@tin.it, including your name, affiliation, and a short presentation of your research interests. We will include this information on our website. Also let us know whether you want to receive an electronic newsletter which will keep you updated about EMiGR. Membership is free.
Why EMiGR?
According to the United Nations in 2009 214 million people moved from their own country to another; another 740 million moved within their national borders. There is no doubt that migration has been the most powerful agent of change in the modern world and a growing source of concerns. Nevertheless, until the recent anxiety about potential climate refugees, the connections between nature and migrations have been largely ignored.
Historians and social scientists have considered almost every aspect of immigrants’ adjustments to new societies: religion, language, marriage, gender relationships, work, housing, only to quote few of them. Nevertheless, it seems that these immigrants have never moved through or settled in a concrete environment. Even the urban context, which has been largely explored, has remained basically void of natural connotations.
Surprisingly, even environmental historians do not seem to have been interested in the history of mass migrations nor have the historians of migrations ever been interested in the environment.
EMiGR: the flyer.