Coffee, Migration and Climatic Changes: Challenging Adaptation Dichotomic Narratives in a Transborder Region

The narratives of migration as adaptation and in situ adaptation are well established in mainstream adaptation policy and are usually presented as independent and opposing trends of action. A common and fundamental element of such narratives is the depoliticized conception of both migration and adaptation. Using a trans-scalar approach, we address the migration&ndash
coffee&ndash
climate change nexus: first at a regional scale, at the conflictive border of Guatemala&ndash
Mexico, to show the contradiction between the current Central American migratory crisis and the narrative of migration as adaptation
second, at a local scale and from an ethnographic perspective, we focus on the process of in situ adaptation in shade-grown coffee plots of smallholder coffee farmers in the Tacan&aacute
Volcano cross-border region, between Chiapas and Guatemala. We argue that the dichotomy &ldquo
in situ adaptation&rdquo
versus &ldquo
migration as adaptation&rdquo
is not useful to capture the intertwined and political nature of both narratives, as illustrated in the case of the renovation of smallholders&rsquo
coffee plots in a context of climatic changes. We provide elements to contribute towards the repolitization of adaptation from an integral perspective.