The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Emily Boyd

Emily Boyd

Professor, Docent

Emily Boyd

Bridging and breaking silos : Transformational governance of the migration-sustainability nexus

Author

  • Caroline Zickgraf
  • Dominique Jolivet
  • Claudia Fry
  • Emily Boyd
  • Anita Fábos

Summary, in English

Sustainability and migration are typically treated as discrete policy spheres in international, national, and local fora, separated in governance structures and institutions. This results in policy incoherence that hinders just transitions toward more sustainable societies cognizant of mobile realities. This explorative effort identifies the (dis)connections between policy domains using data collected on how the sustainability-migration nexus is governed in four countries with a special emphasis on urban areas: Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States. Results of 73 interviews show that migration and sustainability actors find it challenging to see how they could be working together and that migrants are rarely conceived of as sustainability actors and/or targeted populations of sustainability policy. Despite the cross-sectoral nature of sustainability, it appears that migration and sustainability are sequestered into silos that hinder collaborative actions. Lamenting the existence of silos is not enough to encourage new lines of thinking or practice in how sustainability is governed; therefore, we examine the evidence to ascertain current barriers blocking synergetic governance and the opportunities for change perceived by respondents via three critical elements of transformations toward sustainability: structural, systemic, and enabling conditions. We argue that for sustainability transitions to happen, a wider set of societal actors needs to be included from policy intention to action, but that this transformation may require more than policy integration via horizontal coordination. It demands reflexivity and pluralistic pathways that close vertical gaps between national and municipal levels and diminish structural inequalities as they intersect with migration type and status.

Department/s

  • LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
  • LU Profile Area: Nature-based future solutions
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2024

Language

English

Publication/Series

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Volume

121

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

National Academy of Sciences

Topic

  • Other Social Sciences

Keywords

  • migration
  • reflexivity
  • sustainability governance
  • transformations towards sustainability
  • urban sustainability

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0027-8424