Disasters, displacement and livelihoods: The case of Japan’s Fukushima evacuees
Dr. Ana Mosneaga, UNU-IAS
Restoring livelihoods of people displaced by disasters involves a dual challenge of re-establishing the means for making a living while adapting to a new environment. Since Japan’s March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident, this challenge has loomed particularly large for evacuees due to the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Access to livelihoods and employment are among the core criteria used to determine the extent to which durable solutions have been achieved, be it return to the place of origin, local integration in the place of evacuation or resettlement in a different location. Over the longer term, however, displaced people’s ability to achieve social integration in these environments becomes an important indicator of their wellbeing. In this seminar, Dr. Mosneaga will discuss the challenges faced by different types of Fukushima evacuees in the process of livelihood restoration and social integration. Dr. Mosneaga will also consider policy implications of addressing these challenges in the context of response-to-recovery transition. The seminar will draw on findings from interviews and focus group discussions with the evacuees, local authorities from displaced municipalities and civil society groups supporting the evacuees.
About the speaker
Ana Mosneaga is a migration policy specialist with core expertise in labour migration management. She currently works as Research Associate at UNU-IAS in Tokyo doing research on disaster-induced displacement after the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima. From September to November 2015 she is a visiting researcher with UNU-MERIT’s Migration and Development Research Group. Ana holds a Ph.D. in human geography from the University of Copenhagen with a focus on the management of international student mobility as a subgroup of skilled migration. During her PhD, Ana was a guest researcher in the Labour Migration Branch of the International Labour Organisation. Before joining UNU, she worked for the Immigration and Integration Unit of the Directorate-General Home Affairs of the European Commission and held positions with multinational companies in Copenhagen.
Venue: Room 0.16-0.17
Date: 30 September 2015
Time: 12:30 - 13:30 CET
