Helena Dedecek Gertz

Senior Visiting Fellow in the cluster migration, borders and mobility in, around and through Europe

Helena’s project will explore the interplay between environmental degradation, migration, and emotions, focusing on Latin American migrants in Western Europe. It seeks to understand how transnational networks engage with perceptions of socio-environmental risks, such as extreme weather events in home countries, which contribute to "eco-anxiety"—a sense of fear or uncertainty about climate change and its impacts. This anxiety is compounded by disrupted social ties and the inability to support kin in environmentally vulnerable regions, which may also be influencing migrants' decisions. Moving beyond alarmist narratives of "climate migration," the project adopts a transnational perspective to analyse how migration networks circulate perceptions, emotions, and social practices related to environmental degradation and socioeconomic inequality. The study examines these networks' affective dynamics through qualitative interviews and text analyses, contrasting Latin America's climate-vulnerable, post-colonial context with Western Europe's more economically resourceful settings. By focusing on the role of emotions like eco-anxiety, the research aims to deepen understanding of how environmental perceptions can be shaping migrants' actions and contribute to societal transformations in both origin and settlement countries and regions.