At long last, we are getting ready to release SCENARIO 6: MIGRATION later this month. Since we put out the call for submissions just over a year ago, a cascade of current events around the world has prompted us to reassess the theme and reinforced for us the timeliness and urgency of this topic. From the U.S. election to a profoundly changed political climate in Europe, to increasingly visible changes in natural systems facing the early effects of climate change, migration is all around us. The topic is a complicated one, and there were some elements and perspectives on Migration that we were keen to include in the issue. We felt we needed more time to properly address the breadth and urgency of the topic of migration. We are excited to be putting the finishing touches on this issue as we speak and think you will enjoy it. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, let us share with you some of the stories from around the internet that we are reading, watching, and listening to, all of them reverberating in one way or another around the many facets of the topic of migration–of people, of animals, of materials, of landscapes. Enjoy!
What we’re reading:
This stunning and brutal account of human trafficking and Nigerian girls risking everything to make their way across the deserts of Libya to reach Europe. Fleeing Boko Haram. Probably not what architects mean when they talk about adaptive reuse. Photographer Richard Mosse talks about repurposing a camera made for long-range battle surveillance to show humanity in refugee camps. Forensic anthropologists document the human tragedy of immigration through the remains of 550 bodies found in a single county in South Texas. Trump’s wall may also impact thousands of plant and animal species. Saltwater migration is already killing coastal forests at the leading edge of climate change.
The planning and construction of detention centers in rural areas effectively robs detainees of their right to an attorney. How Washington blew its best chance to fix immigration years ago. On those days when America seems heartless, know that this small town welcomes 1,500 refugees a year. While Americans envy the generosity of kinder Presidents, some Canadians doubt the #WelcomeToCanada campaign. Trump’s Paris climate agreement speech, annotated by an expert in energy and foreign policy. Why scientists are bad at explaining climate change.
Immigration is changing languages and people are modulating how they use the term migration. Globalization and industrial agriculture have created an unprecedented microbial migration. Pronghorn antelopes learn to use highway overpasses on the first federally designated migration corridor in North America, while the Department of Transportation wonders if grizzlies, fish, and monarch butterflies may benefit from highways. Tracing human migration through music and nocturnal bird flight through acoustic monitoring. And in Somalia where nomadic tribes migrate in search of water and pasture, climate change is acting as the catalyst of conflict and displacement.
What we’re listening to:
The language of human migration is ever-shifting and political: migrant, immigrant, asylum-seeker, and refugee. The journey of an unaccompanied minor from Honduras to the United States. 99% Invisible’s excellent two-part series on the history of Sanctuary Cities.
Happy exploring,
Stephanie Carlisle and Nicholas Pevzner
Editors-in-Chief // Scenario Journal