Towards a Critical Peri-urban Turn in Climate-related Mobility in Southern Africa

Abstract

This article offers a theoretical intervention on emerging patterns of climate-related mobility and peri-urban transformation in Southern Africa. While it is not an empirically representative study, the analytical intervention is informed by a sustained field engagement with the dynamics of climate change adaptation in peri-urban settlements in South Africa, as well as recent engagements in Mozambique and Malawi. First, the article argues that climate change is reshaping urbanisation processes not only through direct climate-induced displacement but also through indirect pressures that reorganise livelihoods, living costs and spatial inequalities. Second, it illustrates that these dynamics are producing a distinct peri-urban turn, in which urban peripheries function as secondary climate margins. They are adaptive yet uneven spaces shaped by historical legacies, infrastructural differentiation and emerging diversities. Ultimately, by reframing climate-related adaptations as a significant driver of urban and peri-urban reconfiguration, the article provides a critical lens for understanding urban futures in Southern Africa and the global South more broadly.

Introduction

The urban sociologist, Douglas Massey, once commented that ‘[the] urban future lies neither in Chicago nor Los Angeles; it instead lies in “Third World” cities like Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai, Hong Kong’ (Massey cited in Roy, 2005, p. 1). This article resonates with Massey’s observation. It illustrates that peri-urban settlements represent a key frontier in the future of urbanisation in Africa, and that climate change is emerging as a significant driver of this transformation (see Geyer et al., 2013; Iskander & Landau, 2022; Meth et al., 2021; Roy, 2009; Udo et al., 2025). In many African cities, climate variability is not only accelerating mobility towards peri-urban areas but also reshaping these spaces in more complex and diversifying ways, marked by shifting temporalities, increased demographic diversity, reconfigurations of livelihoods and new forms of socio-spatial differentiation. These dynamics unfold within the long shadow of post-apartheid South Africa and postcolonial urban transformations in other African contexts, highlighting how climate-induced mobilities intersect with historical legacies to shape changing patterns of displacement and mobility.

While much scholarship on climate migration in the global South focuses on rural–urban migration and large-scale displacement projections, less attention is given to how climate impacts are reorganising urban spaces, particularly their role in evolving peri-urban settlement dynamics. This article is positioned as a theoretical intervention on how climate issues may impact urbanism in the global South, using specific instances from Southern Africa. It is informed by a sustained engagement with peri-urban settlements and migrant communities in Southern Africa. It does not aim to present a statistically representative or empirically exhaustive account, but rather to draw on cumulative insights from long-term field exposure and existing empirical scholarship on the critical urban theory to offer a conceptual synthesis, analytical insights and theoretical repositioning.

The article argues that peri-urban areas are increasingly becoming not merely passive recipients of climate-displaced populations. Rather, climate-related mobilities are actively restructuring the social and spatial fabric of these urban peripheries and peri-urban settlements. The settlements are active, uneven terrains where new forms of demographic diversity, socio-spatial fragmentation and livelihood reconfigurations are emerging in response to environmental pressures.

Amidst the expanding urban frontiers, informal growth and ‘diversification’ (Vertovec, 2015, 2021) in Africa and global South cities, climate migration scholars, urban theorists and city planners need to pay close attention to these changing and emerging patterns of climate-induced displacement trajectories and their intersection with the unfolding dynamics in the African peri-urban spaces. For city planners, this knowledge is essential in informing just and sustainable urban futures amid intensifying climate crises across the region.

This article aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse around Southern urbanism, a discussion that seeks to decentre urban theoretical framings in the global South. It begins by situating the analysis within dominant debates on the climate–migration nexus and then explores adaptation and mobility trends specific to Southern Africa. It, then, identifies critical gaps in existing scholarship and proposes directions for future inquiry. The final section outlines policy and governance implications, offering pathways towards more inclusive and climate-resilient urban planning in the global South. In this article, I will use the terms migration, displacement and mobility more or less interchangeably. Note that, this does not mean they are not conceptually different within the climate change adaptation discourse.

Revisiting the Climate–Mobility Debate

Debates on the climate–mobility nexus have long been dominated by large-scale predictive models. These models, for instance, the Rigaud et al. (2018) and the African Climate Mobility Initiative, estimate that climate change could internally displace up to 143 million people globally by 2050, with 85 million affected in sub-Saharan Africa alone (Amakrane et al., 2023; Rigaud et al., 2018). While these models have drawn significant attention to impending climate risks and their impacts on urbanisation in Africa, they rely on deterministic assumptions that treat environmental or climate change as a direct or singular driver of mobility. Except in cases of rapid-onset displacement—for instance, when the whole community is evacuated because of floods, cyclones or other similar disasters—climate change is usually not the singular driver of mobility, rather part of a multidimensional phenomenon influenced by various other factors relating to temporality, spatiality and disaster typologies (Zickgraf, 2021b).

In many cases, the decisions to move or adapt in place during climate disasters are not uniform but are shaped by development trajectories, governance structures and sociopolitical conditions. The interplay of these factors significantly influences whether a person moves or adapts in situ. Again, migration is not always a purely rational or economically motivated individual choice. Rather, it is deeply rooted in social norms, historical mobility patterns, local adaptive capacities, human agency, cultural factors and social dynamics. Migration is further influenced by the interplay of cultural beliefs, religious values, attachment to place, uncertainty and identity (Hagen-Zanker et al., 2023). Additionally, the decision to move—or to remain in place—depends on access to financial and social capital, highlighting how immobility itself can be a form of vulnerability (Zickgraf, 2021a). Thus, predictive models that rely on quantitative projections often fail to capture these deeply embedded sociocultural, political and humanistic dimensions of climate mobility. They also overshadow the broader spectrum of adaptive responses, including in situ adaptation and community resilience strategies (Boas et al., 2022).

For a more nuanced perspective, we need to take a multidimensional approach to the climate– migration nexus, considering other factors such as temporal, spatial and environmental typology issues. Regarding temporal factors, climate migration can follow seasonal, circular, short-term, long-term or permanent migration patterns (Awumbila et al., 2014). Regarding spatial factors, recent climate migration trends in Southern Africa and other lower-middle income countries comprise not only rural–urban routes, as opined in much of climate migration literature, but also urban–rural and urban–peri-urban. Lastly, regarding disaster typologies, it is evident that slow-onset environmental changes (e.g., desertification, droughts) differ from rapid-onset disasters (e.g., floods, cyclones) (Hoffmann et al., 2020; Zickgraf, 2021b), which have different impacts on people’s migration. For instance, while slow-onset disasters often trigger gradual adaptation strategies, rapid-onset events necessitate immediate, reactive displacement. Yet, existing predictive models struggle to differentiate among these mobility responses, contributing to inaccurate projections and oversimplified policy recommendations.

Climate Change Manifestations and Impacts in Southern Africa

The Southern African region, due to its geographical positioning, semi-arid nature and other factors, is highly exposed to climate change and environmental disasters (Scholes & Engelbrecht, 2021). In recent years, South Africa has experienced extreme slow- and rapid-onset events, including the 2015–2018 Western Cape drought and recurrent flooding, landslides and tornadoes across KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Gauteng. Similarly, Mozambique, Malawi and parts of Zimbabwe have endured catastrophic cyclones: Idai in 2019, Ana in 2022 and Freddy in 2023. These climatic stresses intersect with land degradation, increasing water scarcity, declining agricultural yields and persistent deforestation, further exacerbated by the region’s generally low adaptive capacity, a condition mirrored across much of the African continent. In response, many individuals and communities seek to adapt with migration increasingly becoming a visible strategy.

Although migration is often a response to climate-related pressures, research shows that it is shaped by a complex interplay of environmental, social, political and demographic factors (Black et al., 2011). In Southern Africa, worsening climatic conditions deepen poverty and disrupt livelihoods, prompting both internal and cross-border movements. According to the South African Migration Profile of 2023, most regional migration flows are directed towards South Africa (StatSA, 2023), plausibly due to its comparatively stronger economy. These flows, according to the report, largely originate from neighbouring Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, especially Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe (StatSA, 2023). Internally, Gauteng and the Western Cape—particularly Johannesburg and Cape Town—attracted the highest levels of in-migration, while Limpopo, the Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal recorded the highest out-migration rates between 2011 and 2022 (StatSA, p. 3). Historically, urban centres such as Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town have functioned as major migration hubs due to their concentration of extractive, service and port-related industries, a pattern reinforced by post-apartheid socio-spatial reconfigurations.

Across Africa, migration has long followed a predominantly rural–urban trajectory, shaped by the promise of economic opportunity, infrastructure and services under neoliberal expansion and rural precarity. Previously, these movements were driven primarily by economic and political factors, including conflict. Today, however, climatic stress increasingly intersects with these drivers, directly and indirectly shaping mobility patterns. This has accelerated urban expansion, producing new risks and vulnerabilities, including heightened exposure to environmental hazards. Projections suggest that climate-induced rural–urban mobility will intensify across sub-Saharan Africa (Jilesen & Wegerif, 2023; Mpandeli et al., 2020), with most movements directed towards urban centres (Clement et al., 2021; Rigaud et al., 2018). Similarly, the African Climate Mobility Initiative outlines multiple displacement scenarios, contingent on adaptation governance pathways (Amakrane et al., 2023).

Yet, many of these projections overlook the growing spatial and temporal complexity of climate-related mobility. Contemporary displacement patterns, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, increasingly encompass short-term, seasonal and long-distance movements, as well as diverse trajectories, including rural-to-urban, rural-to-peri-urban, rural-to-urban-to-peri-urban and urban-to-peri-urban flows, often in circular patterns (Warner et al., 2012). These patterns are shaped not only by environmental stress but also by human agency, sociocultural dynamics and structural constraints (Boas et al., 2019; Schewel et al., 2024). Scholars examining the climate–mobility–urbanisation nexus may, therefore, benefit from engaging with emerging forms of diversity and ‘diversifications’ (Vertovec, 2021). Building on Vertovec’s concept of super-diversity and migration-driven diversification (Vertovec, 2007, 2015), I argue that climate change introduces additional layers of complexity into migration pathways, with important implications not only for urban centres but also for the evolving dynamics of peri-urban settlements in Southern Africa.

A Note on Methodological Orientation and Positionality

This article is not presented as a conventional empirical study but as a conceptual intervention informed by sustained, multi-sited engagement with peri-urban and informal settlements in Southern Africa. The arguments and insights presented here draw on years of sustained ethnographic observation and engagement in peri-urban settlements in South Africa, Mozambique and Malawi. Thus, these experiences serve as a heuristic and interpretive backdrop rather than as systematically analysed empirical materials. These engagements have shaped the conceptual questions I pose in this article, particularly regarding climate-induced displacement, social differentiation, the changing temporalities and spatiality of mobility and peri-urban reconfigurations.

Between April 2019 and May 2023, I conducted community-based ethnographically informed research in several peri-urban and informal localities, including sites in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. This was part of my doctoral studies on gender and climate change adaptation, as well as spatial humanities. Additionally, between January and October 2024, I conducted several research engagements in peri-urban settlements in Gauteng Province, South Africa, Maputo (Mozambique) and southern Malawi as part of a climate-displacement project. Rather than presenting site-specific findings, this article mobilises these experiences to critically interrogate dominant climate–migration framings and to suggest emerging patterns of climate-related mobility and peri-urban reconfigurations in the global South and African contexts. In doing so, I aim to contribute to debates on climate mobility, informality and Southern urbanism by offering a theoretically grounded, place-attuned perspective on the urban social futures in Africa, amidst prevailing climate-stressed margins.

Peri-urban Settlements as Secondary Climate Margins

This article advances the concept of secondary climate margins to explore the role of peri-urban settlements in the climate–migration–urbanisation debate. In ‘The centre cannot hold: Arrival, margins, and the politics of ambivalence’, the introduction to the special issue ‘Arrival at the Margins’, Iskander and Landau (2022) conceptualise margins or urban peripheries as dynamic, socially constructed spaces that are frequently overlooked or reduced to sites of dysfunction. They challenge this dominant framing by foregrounding these spaces as politically and socially generative zones where diverse groups interact, resist and forge solidarities capable of unsettling the urban core.

Related theorisations of the subversive potential of urban peripheries and suburbanism can be found in the works of Ananya Roy. In The 21st century metropolis, Roy (2009) calls for ‘new geographies of imagination and epistemology’ in urban theory. She argues that existing dominant frameworks are centred on Euro-American experiences and, thus, fail to capture the multiple forms of metropolitan modernity and lived realities in the global South. In ‘Slumdog cities: Rethinking subaltern urbanism’, Roy (2011) similarly critiques dominant narratives of subaltern spaces. She contends that these spaces—including urban peripheries, informal settlements and other grey areas—are shaped by complex political, economic, spatial and social processes that in turn shape urban lives. The crux of Roy’s argument is the need to reground discourse on the nature of evolving urbanisms and urban periphery dynamics in the global South. She conceptualises these sites as spaces of knowledge production—potentially generative spaces that can destabilise the urban core (Roy, 2011). Her work also offers new perspectives on urban marginality and urban futures in the global South and African contexts. However, Roy’s theorisation does not appear to engage deeply with the spatial, social and temporal diversification unfolding within these spaces.

Building on these insights from Roy (2009, 2011) and Iskander and Landau (2022), I extend this argument within the context of escalating environmental and climate pressures and uncertainty. I argue that climate change is not only intensifying displacement but also reshaping mobility patterns and spatial aspirations, resulting in renewed interest in peri-urban spaces that move beyond the historically dominant rural–urban mobility paradigm in Africa. My aim is not to suggest that peri-urban settlements constitute either origins or destination cities. Rather, I identify them as critical epistemic sites for understanding urban futures in the global South and Southern Africa or as recursive adaptive zones amid the evolving temporalities and spatiality of mobility in the region—particularly under prevailing climate and environmental stresses.

Evolving Temporalities and Spatiality of Climate-related Mobility in South Africa

In this section, I discuss the evolving temporalities and spatial dynamics of climate-related mobility and how these might reconfigure (whether infrastructurally or socio-spatially) in peri-urban settlements in Africa. Here, I find the work of the American–British anthropologist and sociologist Steven Vertovec on diversification in global cities is particularly relevant and relatable. In ‘Introduction: Migration, cities, diversities “old” and “new”’, Vertovec (2015) demonstrates that contemporary urban life is increasingly shaped by complex, layered forms of migration-driven diversification. He argues that existing social scientific theories, especially assimilationist and group-based models, have not adequately explained these evolving forms of diversification. Similarly, in his earlier work (Vertovec, 2007), he had introduced the concept of ‘super-diversity’ to reframe emerging patterns of diversity and transformation in major global cities such as New York, London and Johannesburg, describing super-diversity as a multidimensional and dynamic condition shaped by intersecting variables such as legal status, class, gender and migration trajectories, rather than by ethnicity alone.

The key points in Vertovec’s works that I find particularly relevant and relatable to the discussion in this article lie in his analytical focus on how evolving patterns of migration-related diversity are reshaping everyday encounters in public spaces, including micro-level interactions, fleeting contacts and socio-spatial practices. Due to these emerging patterns and configurations, cities have become increasingly crucial sites for negotiating diversity. Building on Vertovec’s (2015, 2007) points, I propose that urban theorists and migration scholars should further consider how the prevailing climatic pressures—especially in the global South and Africa—may reshape these shifting patterns of migration and their resulting effects on peri-urbanisation reconfigurations, including how they affect everyday peri-urban experiences, sense of place and belonging, patterns of inequalities, exclusion and inclusion, and evolving social and infrastructural vulnerabilities.

In the face of climate stresses, the temporalities and spatialities of mobility have been evolving. Historically, rural–urban migration in postcolonial Africa was driven by urbanisation and the concentration of industries in a few major cities. In South Africa, peri-urban areas—classified alongside urban and semi-urban zones by the Sociology of Development Research Unit at Stellenbosch—emerged as commuter settlements located at the fringes of urban centres (Ogura, 1996). Under apartheid, these spaces absorbed large numbers of migrant workers, largely people of colour, who were excluded from White urban areas but needed proximity to industrial and mining zones. Post-apartheid socio-spatial reconfigurations transformed urban centres into primary hubs for both rural and peri-urban migrants, especially Black circular labour migrants seeking economic opportunity and urban belonging. Based on the 2022 South African Census data between 1996 and 2011, 77.8 per cent of migration was internal, with 83.5 per cent directed towards urban destinations (Xiao et al., 2022). Yet, while movement towards the urban persists, emerging empirical research, along with my sustained observations and engagements across multiple peri-urban sites in South Africa, Mozambique and Malawi, suggests a growing urban–peri-urban trajectory, which is plausibly shaped by climate-related pressures.

Across Southern Africa, peri-urban settlements are increasingly becoming key sites of climate-induced mobility. As interfaces between rural and urban systems, these spaces are shaped by demographic shifts, changing livelihoods and land-use transformations. As cities face mounting sustainability pressures, their peripheries absorb displaced populations, producing new forms of diversification and super-diversity. While scholars have begun theorising African urban peripheries (Meth et al., 2021) and frontier urbanisms (Iskander & Landau, 2022; Roy, 2009) in the global South, how prevailing climate and environmental stressors impact urban configurations in the region remain underexplored—particularly in cities such as Johannesburg, Durban, Maputo and Blantyre (in southern Malawi), where peri-urbanisation reflects adaptive and maladaptive responses to climatic change. Climate-related mobility, moreover, generates ambivalent outcomes: It can reduce exposure to environmental risk and foster development, yet it simultaneously produces new vulnerabilities, inequalities, gendered violence, exclusions, identity struggles and spatial hierarchies (Black et al., 2011; Zickgraf, 2022). Migration or mobility, therefore, cannot be romanticised as adaptation; it is a deeply uneven and politically charged process.

Notably, as cities become increasingly congested and climate displacement intensifies, these liminal spaces are witnessing transformations in demographic composition, livelihood strategies, senses of place, belonging and land use—visible not only in South Africa but also in contexts such as Tamale (Ghana) and Ressano Garcia (Mozambique). These shifts highlight significant gaps in the existing literature: the limited conceptualisation of peri-urban settlements as adaptive spaces, as a critical site of new ‘diversifications’ (Vertovec, 2021). It also spotlights the insufficient scholarly attention to how climate-induced mobility reshapes social differences themselves. Even though, as Vertovec (2021) asserts, diversification not only generates tension but can also foster coexistence, community and new forms of sociality. Attending to this duality is crucial for future research on climate mobility, critical urbanism and the climate–conflict–cohesion nexus (Buhaug, 2015; Buhaug & Urdal, 2013; Theisen et al., 2013).

Emerging Spatial Inequalities at the Peri-Urban Settlements

In recent years, the emerging trajectory of urban–peri-urban mobility has reinforced and extended spatial and socio-economic inequalities in peri-urban areas. These disparities are most visible in housing patterns, where stark contrasts exist between different social groups. It is now common to see dilapidated, ageing shacks standing alongside newly built modern structures or low-income households living next to middle- and working-class families. This juxtaposition is especially pronounced in formerly disadvantaged townships and peri-urban settlements, revealing uneven development and the persistence of both structural and spatial inequalities (Udo & Naidu, 2023, 2024). Figure 1 illustrates an example of a visible pattern of spatial inequalities visible in housing structures in uMlazi Township.

Figure 1.

Source: Fidelis Udo.

The differential spatial structure depicted in Figure 1 is becoming increasingly common in townships due to climate-related mobility. Such diversity is not limited to physical layouts; it also manifests in the social relations among township residents.

Observably, the wave of urban–peri-urban mobility has transformed these areas into dynamic social frontiers marked by growing diversity. In the peripheries of Johannesburg, for example, internal migrants from across South Africa—already representing multiple demographic groups—coexist with a significant influx of cross-border migrants. Many of these newcomers originate from disaster-affected regions, including parts of northern and southern Malawi, Mozambique’s Maputo Province, and economically driven migrants from Zimbabwe. This convergence adds new layers of diversity across nationalities, languages, livelihood strategies, cultural practices and senses of place and belonging.

These emerging forms of diversity and diversification have significant implications—they are not neutral. They generate complex, often contested notions of place, identity and belonging, shaped by the hierarchies produced through rapid urban–peri-urban mobility patterns. As people with different resources, aspirations and vulnerabilities inhabit the same spaces, social relations are reconfigured. Public spaces are experienced and navigated differently, resulting in uneven experiences of inclusion and exclusion. In this sense, peri-urban settlements are not merely sites of demographic change but arenas where inequality, difference and belonging are continuously negotiated (Udo & Naidu, 2023).

Conclusion: Towards a Critical Peri-urban Turn in Climate-related Mobility

While traditional projections of climate migration or mobility largely anticipated a linear rural–urban trajectory (Amakrane et al., 2023; Barrios et al., 2006; Rigaud et al., 2018), emerging evidence points to a newer and less examined urban–peri-urban pattern. As urbanisation in many African and global South cities reaches saturation, growing numbers of people are relocating from city centres to their peripheries. This shift complicates dominant understandings of climate mobility as event-driven, rural and crisis-led. Although many of these movers are economically vulnerable individuals seeking lower living costs—particularly for rent, food and utilities—a notable proportion includes middle- and working-class residents who, despite stable employment or businesses in the city, choose peri-urban relocation for socio-economic, infrastructural and environmental reasons, including less regulated land markets. This suggests that climate-induced mobility is not only about displacement but also about everyday strategies of adjustment, anticipation and spatial reorientation.

In South Africa, these dynamics are deeply shaped by the country’s post-apartheid socio-spatial history. While the immediate post-apartheid period enabled Black populations previously confined to peripheral and homeland areas to move into urban centres, recent years have witnessed a partial reversal of this trend. Many residents in Johannesburg, whose livelihoods have become increasingly precarious in the city, are relocating to peri-urban areas such as Katlehong, where the cost of living, especially of water and electricity, is significantly lower or nearly free. This movement also includes middle-class households, facilitated by the expansion of road infrastructure that enables daily commuting. As a result, peri-urban spaces are becoming sites of growing socio-economic and skill-based diversification, hosting not only informal workers but also mall managers, hospitality professionals, plumbers, electricians and other artisans. These shifts position peri-urban settlements not as residual or marginal spaces, but as active frontiers of urban transformation.

Importantly, these mobility patterns are not only shaped by local economic pressures but are also indirectly linked to climate change through national and international climate policies, including the Clean Development Mechanism, Nationally Determined Contributions and carbon taxation (Mantlana et al, 2021). In South Africa, where coal remains the dominant energy source, these policies have contributed to rising electricity costs in urban centres, making peri-urban relocation an adaptive response to intensifying structural pressures. This reframes climate-induced mobility as a process that is mediated by political economy, infrastructure and historical inequality, rather than as a simple response to environmental shocks. The resulting urban–peri-urban movements generate new forms of diversity, informality, inclusion and exclusion, alongside emerging socio-spatial inequalities in the peri-urban settlements.

Seen through a critical peri-urban climate lens, these trajectories suggest that climate change is indirectly reshaping urbanisation, through cost-of-living pressures, infrastructural differentiation and uneven governance, rather than solely through visible disasters. While this trend is particularly pronounced among South Africans, who often have stronger land tenure rights and the ability to build permanent structures, migrants from rural areas and other countries are also adopting peri-urban settlement strategies for similar reasons. Peri-urban spaces, thus, emerge as secondary climate margins: not passive overflow zones, but politically and socially generative sites where climate adaptation, everyday survival and urban futures are being actively negotiated.

Future Research Directions

Amid the prevailing climate pressures and climate-induced displacement (within and beyond peri-urban settings), it is essential to critically examine how social inequalities intersect with environmental pressures to shape mobility dynamics. This requires moving beyond predictive climate–migration models towards an approach that foregrounds how people navigate climate challenges in real time. Human agency and choice are central here, as they influence whether individuals migrate, remain or adapt in place (Roast et al., 2022). These decisions are not uniform but are shaped by intersecting social factors, including gender, age, ethnicity, education, social networks and marital status (Thompson-Hall et al., 2016). While ethnic tensions in South African townships have been widely documented, there remains a significant gap in understanding how climate-induced displacement is reshaping these existing social dynamics—particularly in rapidly transforming peri-urban settlements.

Future research on sustainable urbanisation in Southern Africa must also engage more seriously with the relationship between climate-induced mobility and peri-urban expansion. Given that peri-urban spaces are fluid, relational and historically produced, this calls for a multidisciplinary, place-based approach (Turok & Borel-Saladin, 2014). Urban–peri-urban mobility generates both opportunities and new vulnerabilities as cities face mounting sustainability pressures. Beyond mapping these patterns, scholars must critically examine the dilemmas, visible and subtle tensions and social negotiations emerging in these spaces. Such an approach is vital for understanding how diversification, inequality and belonging are being reconfigured under climate stress—and for informing urban planning and governance frameworks that respond meaningfully to the lived realities of climate displacement.