Framework and
Approach
Importance
In North America and throughout the world, migrants (immigrants, undocumented, DACAmented, refugees, foreign workers, and expats) continue to experience lack of visibility and inclusion from sustainability solutions and planning. It is not common for migrants to be explicitly included in discussions over the equitable impacts of conservation, resilience, or climate action. Moreover, while efforts on climate justice are increasing, it is common that they lack adequate representation and leadership from migrants. This can be connected to how migrants, and especially those that are undocumented, inherently face many barriers to participation and often they have been disconnected from their home towns and lands, not to mention that the current political climate is actively marginalizing them.
It is important for migrant leaders and family members working in sustainability fields to have a voice in impacting the sustainability solutions that are being created in these catalytic times. Migrant perspectives are inherently important because our communities need active and unique representation in the green future that is coming. We also offer important insight because we bring a global perspective informed by our lived experiences and struggles, which are directly linked to the global processes impacting climate, environmental, and social issues. Moreover, many of us bring ancestral and cultural connections to our home lands, and we have important knowledge for caring for Mother Nature. This is specially a pivotal time for centering migrant voices because the coming climate changes will create millions of migrants, and we need to plan for resilience and adaptation with the experience and knowledge of current migrants.
Framework
What does sustainability mean to us?
Sustainability is about imagining and creating a future that heals our social-ecological relationships. It involves improving interconnected systems, environmental, political, and socials for the benefit of both current and future generations. At its core, sustainability ensures equitable impacts and champions environmental justice, seeking to transform harmful systems while uplifting community resilience and ecological harmony.
What does being a migrant mean to us?
Migration reflects a natural, ancestral, and ecological identity that transcends rigid and state definitions of citizenship, even though it is often regulated by national and colonial legal frameworks. Migrants embody courage, love, foresight, selflessness, conviction, and a visionary, adventurous spirit. They move for many reasons, ranging from deeply personal motivations to global forces, with the hope of creating better futures, often for their families.
Despite facing systemic oppression and being targeted by various powers at local and international levels, migrants remain resilient and hopeful. Their journeys require immense bravery as they venture into unfamiliar territories filled with unknown challenges. Migrants are also explorers with their adventurous spirit through their willingness to embrace new cultures, foods, and ways of life.
Migrants serve important roles in their families and communities across nations as they often become bridges between cultures and peoples carrying with them memories, traditions, and knowledge from their homelands while navigating and integrating into new worlds. They live at the intersection of multiple cultures and languages, embodying rich, layered perspectives shaped by diverse knowledge systems.