Reviewing the place of migrants in disasters: a personal perspective
Disaster Prevention and Management
ISSN: 0965-3562
Article publication date: 26 November 2021
Issue publication date: 22 April 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to call attention to issues that may be missing or taken for granted in discourses on migrants and disasters by applying the author’s viewpoint to reflect on gaps and potentials for disaster risk reduction.
Design/methodology/approach
The author discusses key issues based on reflective engagement with selected secondary documentation in the form of grey and scholarly literature. Personal perspectives are engaged to develop arguments on intersections that are relevant to the migrant situation in different frameworks in disaster studies.
Findings
While migrants are considered significant stakeholders in key global agreements on disaster and migration, encounters with disaster literature from a more localised level reveal how references to the migrant sector can be omitted or racialised. This gap can be filled by searching for documentation of migrant strengths and vulnerabilities. However, further reflection demonstrates how adopting broader perspectives can reveal these strengths and vulnerabilities as part of more appropriate and sustainable disaster risk reduction strategies. The paper also shows how such reflections can be led by insights from migrants themselves, not as subjects to be managed but as agents of their own change.
Originality/value
The paper is distinctive because it shows aspects of migrant strengths and disadvantages from a personal viewpoint. It amplifies less-heard perspectives on a conceptual level as well as in actual practice.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to acknowledge the following members for supporting this article through its milestones: Dr. Giulia Sinatti and Dr. Pradytia Pertiwi, the assigned mentor and peer reviewer, respectively, for their insights during the conceptual stages of this project; the anonymous reviewers, for their constructive questions and feedback; the Guest Editors of this Special Issue, for their critical suggestions and affirmations; Dr. Lucinda Aberdeen and Dr. Martina Boese of La Trobe University, for their invaluable comments and encouragement; and the authors’ family, for their editorial inputs and continuing validation of the broader work behind this paper.
Citation
Torres, A.M.S. (2022), "Reviewing the place of migrants in disasters: a personal perspective", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 22-30. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-04-2021-0143
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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