DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2015.v03i09.021

Pages: 1515-1520

Climate migration, often approached through the lenses of security, policy or environmental science, demands a deeper sociological examination of its core human dimension: the profound transformation of community. This paper explores forced displacement due to climatic and environmental disruptions not merely as a demographic shift, but as a fundamental social process that simultaneously unravels and reweaves the fabric of collective life. From a sociological perspective, the phenomenon is a powerful lens for understanding how communities are constituted, maintained and reconfigured under extreme duress. The departure from ancestral lands represents more than a physical relocation; it is a severing of place-based attachments, ecological knowledge systems and the shared histories that underpin collective identity. This dissolution generates a unique form of collective trauma, marked by the loss of social cohesion, cultural continuity and the erosion of traditional institutions that once provided stability and meaning. Migrants engage in active world-building, forging new networks of solidarity and support which often manifest as translocal communities, which sustain vital connections to homelands while negotiating belonging in new, sometimes hostile, environments. In both urban and rural reception areas, the arrival of climate migrants can catalyze complex social reconfigurations, testing existing community boundaries, resources and notions of membership. These interactions may spark conflict over scarce resources but can also stimulate innovative forms of cooperation and cultural hybridity. The remaking is thus characterized by tension between loss and innovation, between the preservation of identity and the necessity of adaptation. Thus, understanding these dual processes of unmaking and remaking is crucial for developing responses that are socially sustainable, ethically grounded and attuned to the human capacity for regeneration amidst crisis.