In addition to the likely issues of the host countries, the refugee populations themselves may experience significant problems with relocation. Significant research has been conducted on diaspora communities which can be applied to a managed retreat from at-risk states in Oceania, albeit with the significant caveat that the homeland may no longer exist in the case of managed retreat from Oceania. The relocation of entire communities presents unique considerations to expectations of integration and possibilities for political conflicts.
Issues for Relocated Populations
Diaspora communities often experience conflicts of identity that affect their ability to identify with host states or their homeland. Perpetually neither here nor there, these populations often experience a lack of identity. For instance, Arab Muslim immigrants to the US and Europe have been found to frequently feel that they are neither Western enough to be a part of their new nation but also lose traditional and cultural influences that allow them to identify with their homeland. This case is relevant to pacific islanders in the context that the homeland may not exist, or at the very least be habitable. Consistently an outsider in their host state and unsure of their identity away from their homeland, the effects of relocation may be severe.
Furthermore, with the assumed lack of a homeland (or at least a hospitable homeland) pacific islanders who may be forced to retreat from Oceania will need to redefine their identities. Familial structures, methods of production, societal expectations, etc. will undergo significant changes that may result in disenfranchisement of relocated populations. Depending on their political status in their new homelands, these populations may not have the ability to fully engage in participatory governance. If they obtain the ability to participate in governance, there is a significant likelihood that they will be pressured to limit engagement by status quo forces in the host state. Even barring societal limitations imposed upon pacific islanders in host states, they are unlikely to form a significant voting bloc that would allow their voices to be heard. Furthermore, populations that are resettled in host states are often neglected post-settlement as the act of resettlement is deemed enough by the host state. This neglect may lead to perceptions of impotence among populations forced to retreat from Oceania, increasing despair and challenging previous assumptions on life after retreat.
Political Involvement and Methods of Action
As a result of an inability to effectively participate in political structures, these groups may be more likely to participate in nonconventional forms of politics. In contrast to other groups that face resettlement, pacific islanders would have a grievance that far outstrips diaspora communities. Namely, that they were forced to resettle by no fault of their own and that no possible action of their own could have prevented the level of climate change to maintain their homeland. This grievance strikes at such concepts as human dignity and responsibility, two often-cited motivations to extra-systemic political violence.
Political violence by diaspora populations is not rare and some degree of political violence should be expected. As their populations would be too small to significantly affect political movements in their host states and their grievances so strong and valid, it should be expected that some portions of those who are forced to retreat may prefer violence over engagement as a political tool. Political violence may take many forms, from rejecting the authority of law enforcement through violence to attacking symbols of the cause of their retreat from Oceania but will likely be designed to send messages to the host state and the international community. Messaging could entail increasing awareness of the plight of Oceania, identifying and attacking the most prolific polluters, and/or garnering support for political action.
This is not to say that pacific islanders are more likely to engage in political violence than other groups of people. To the contrary, the region has been strikingly peaceful with minimal political violence – even the coups within the region tend to be bloodless. Rather, it is to say that the experiences of at-risk populations, assuming managed retreat becomes necessary, in Oceania are exceptionally unique and should not be discounted. Their assumed grievance is unlike any other group in history. They did not lose their homeland to a conquering nation, mistakes of their own, or internal feuding but rather to the actions of developed states and the subsequent effects of climate change.
Solutions to Manage Grievances
As such, in conjunction with the loss of identity and grievances, pacific islanders who are forced to migrate due to climate change will hold many traditional signifiers for political violence. Thus, it is absolutely necessary for host states to ensure that these populations are granted rights and privileges commensurate with the existing citizenry. They must be granted the ability to participate and be heard, to affect politics despite their low population in comparison to the host state. It is imperative that host states maintain consistent communication with these communities and are responsive to their demands. The price should not be exorbitant as these populations are rather small in comparison to the populations of the possible host states. Failure to maintain responsiveness, however, may very well prove to be quite costly.