Natural disasters and the dire effects of climate change cause massive population displacements and lead to some of the most intractable political and humanitarian challenges seen today. And yet, under current U.S. law, there is no such thing as a climate refugee.

To address today’s realities, U.S. migration policies need to change, argues María Cristina García in a live Chats in the Stacks talk about her book State of Disaster: The Failure of U.S. Migration Policy in an Age of Climate Change (UNC Press, 2022). The book offers a critical history of U.S. policy on migration in the Global South, with a focus on Central America and the Caribbean, where natural disasters worsen poverty, inequality, and domestic and international political tensions.

García is the Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies at Cornell University, where her work focuses on the history of displaced and mobile populations in the Americas. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of American Historians. She is a recipient of a 2016 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, the 2010 Cornell Stephen and Margery Russell Teaching Award, and the 2016 Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Award.

This book talk is sponsored by Olin Library. Light refreshments will be served.