Environmental Non-Migration: Rethinking Sustainable Solutions for Climate-Induced Challenges

Climate change is often discussed as a driver of migration. But what about those who stay?

In this talk, Dr. Mallick presents the core arguments of his book, which places environmental non-migration at the center of climate–mobility debates. Challenging deterministic migration narratives, the book explores how social structures, governance, inequality, and place attachment shape decisions to remain in environmentally vulnerable areas.

By reframing non-migration as an active and meaningful outcome, the book contributes to debates on climate adaptation, and sustainable development. Followed by discussion and Q&A.  Students and scholars in migration studies, human geography, development studies, and environmental governance are warmly invited.

Dr. Bishawjit Mallick is an Associate Professor at Utrecht University and a leading scholar in environmental non-migration, climate adaptation, and sustainability. His research challenges dominant climate migration narratives by examining why and how people remain in environmentally vulnerable contexts. He develops conceptual and empirical frameworks to understand non-migration as a socially embedded, politically mediated, and intergenerational process. A key focus of his work is how intergenerational learning, place attachment, and structural inequalities shape adaptation decisions within households and communities. Through interdisciplinary research, he contributes to advancing debates on climate justice, resilience, and transformative pathways for sustainable adaptation that leads to a new concept on “tethered resilience”. 

Dr. Harald Sterly is a Senior Scientist at the Department of Geography and Regional Research at the University of Vienna. His research focuses on the social dimensions of climate and environmental change, with particular attention to human mobility, vulnerability, and habitability. He works with relational and critical perspectives that challenge deterministic narratives of climate-induced migration and uninhabitability, combining qualitative, comparative, and mixed-methods approaches. Harald Sterly has conducted extensive empirical research across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia and is actively engaged in policy-relevant research at the science–policy interface, including collaboration with international organizations and climate governance processes.