ANTH102 Presentation

Why do Nauruans demonstrate resistance and rejection to the term of "climate refugees"? 

Capitalism and Climate Change
- Australia basically used Nauru as a place to dump all their unwanted refugees
- Nauru and Australian govt made agreements which basically institutionalized the refugee industry
	+ Australia benefits by getting a place to dump their refugees, and a source for phosphate
	+ Nauru gets crazy job stimulation and a cheap labor base from the refugees

Conceptualizations of Displacement
- Nauru was historically fucked for its resources
- WW2 wiped out almost half of the Nauruan population, widespread trauma
- The Phosphate industry led to a lot of economic success for the Nauruans, and Nauru's sovereignty
- Refugee industry + phosphate extractavism gave Nauru a crazy economy boost, a big point for homeland pride

Cultural Impacts
- Because their sovereignty and so much of their homeland pride was built off of the refugee industry,
	many Naruans struggle to connect the idea of "being a refugee" with suffering
- Nauru was shaped by many people who greatly benefit from the refugee and phosphate industry
	+ "In Nauru, cultural symbols herald phosphate and refugees as sym￾bols of economic growth. Photos, posters, and ornaments of phosphate still dangle from hotel lobbies, government buildings, and domestic and community spaces"
- "The specific transformation of Nauru as a distinctive company-town form dominated by refugee processing and resettlement also figured into local understandings of climate realities. Possibilities of future relocation were glossed over—and refugee abstraction powerfully reinforced—through the ecosystem of a company town designed to propagate ideals of phosphate and refugees as symbols of economic growth."
- Because Nauru is so dominated by refugee processing and resettlement, the idea of being the ones accepting the refugees, Nauruans have a hard time conceptualizing "becoming the refugees"

Impact of Activist Campaigns and Australian Politics