Climate change, mobilities, and social remittances in Skoura M’Daz, Morocco, with Rachael Diniega

From the Tangier American Legation

Climate change and migration have a complex relationship, and Morocco presents an interesting case of intertwining environmental change, national development policies, and human mobilities. For her dissertation research, Rachael looks at the influence of social remittances, intangible non-material transfers across migrant connections, on climate adaptation and sustainable development in Skoura M’Daz, Morocco. Rachael Diniega is a human mobility and environment specialist. She has studied the intersection of climate change and migration since her BA at the University of Virginia, through her MA Human Rights & Cultural Diversity at the University of Essex, UK, and currently for her PhD in Geography at the University of Vienna, Austria. She has worked and done research in sustainable development and human rights across North Africa and Central Asia. During her AIMS and Fulbright research from 2021 to 2022, she completed fieldwork, including interviews, surveys, and participant observation, in Skoura M’Daz, an olive town in the Middle Atlas Mountains. Rachael previously worked there as a US Peace Corps Volunteer and was very excited to return to beautiful sunsets, couscous Fridays, and the sound of waterfalls and irrigation canals. Bibliography Crawford, D. (2008). Moroccan households in the world economy: Labor and inequality in a Berber village. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Diniega, R., & Paredes Grijalva, D. (2021, October 23). Technically not a “climate refugee”: Legal frameworks, advocacy, and self-identification. Routed Magazine, 17: https://www.routedmagazine.com/technically-not-climate-refugee. Dun, O., Klocker, N., & Head, L. (2018). Recognizing knowledge transfers in “unskilled” and “low-skilled” international migration: Insights from Pacific Island seasonal workers in rural Australia. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 59(3), 276-292. Levitt, P. (1998). Social remittances: Migration driven local-level forms of cultural diffusion. The International Migration Review 32(4), 926-948. Paredes Grijalva, D., & Diniega, R. (2020, October 30). Thinking of environmental migration through translocality and mobilities. Refugee Outreach & Research Network blog: http://www.ror-n.org/-blog/thinking-of-environmental-migration-through-translocality-and-mobilities. Peth, S. A., & Sakdapolrak, P. (2019). When the origin becomes the destination: Lost remittances and social resilience of return labor migrants in Thailand. Area 2019, 1-11. Sakdapolrak, P., Naruchaikusol, S., Ober, K., Peth, S., Porst, L., Rockenbauch, T. & Tolo. V. (2016). Migration in a changing environment. Towards a translocal social resilience approach. Die Erde 147(2), 81-94.