Paper short abstract:

Contrary to migration literature, vulnerable coastal residents in Louisiana are rejecting traditional resilient practices than include geographic mobility in the face of sea level rise and coastal restoration projects that threaten resource-based livelihoods.

Paper long abstract:

Migration literature observes that human mobility resulting from changing environmental circumstances tends to follow established cycles and routes. In coastal Louisiana, USA, a very different pattern is emerging in the face of serious land loss, sea level rise, and intensification of tropical cyclones. Geographic and economic mobility have been central elements of community resilience and have enabled several distinctive, resource-based minority communities to persist in place. Native Americans, Spanish-speaking Islenos, and Acadians, along with other European, Asian, and African groups have been gradually retreating from perilous coastal settlements and adjusting their livelihoods as environmental conditions or public policies forced adaptations. Yet in recent years, numerous social and economic adjustments have reduced the mobility options at a time when movement is becoming increasingly important for survival. Changing practices in resource collection and public policies that regulate oyster and shrimp production have fixed populations in the coastal parishes. Financial arrangements also reduce mobility options. A society with deep attachment to place is sinking its roots even more firmly into the fragile and unraveling wetland soils as it adjusts to changing economic and environmental realities. Additionally, state efforts to restore the disappearing coast will directly impact resource oriented pursuits. Coastal societies met environmental threats in the past by moving inland. Resistance to restoration projects, such as sediment diversions, that might disrupt livelihoods and prompt relocation reflects a rejection of a core traditional resilience practice, and a reluctance to adapt, again, to new environmental circumstances.