Sara Vigil

Sara Vigil joined SEI Asia in 2019 as a Research Fellow for the Gender, Environment, and Development research cluster. Her research explores the overlapping and complex interconnections between climate change, migration, gender and social inequality, and land grabbing. Her current work focuses on the gendered causes and impacts of migration in the context of environmental change, as well as on the barriers and facilitating factors for transformative environmental activism.

Prior to joining SEI, Sara was a member of the MOSAIC project Climate change mitigation policies, land grabbing and conflict in fragile states in Myanmar and Cambodia, a management committee member of the Environmental Diplomacy and Geopolitics EU H2020 project and a research partner of the Migration, Environment, and Climate Change: Evidence for Policy project led by the International Organization for Migration. She has consulted on climate change and migration issues for the World Bank, the Nansen Initiative, the International Organization for Migration, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and has served as a member of the Advisory Group on Climate Change and Human Mobility to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Sara has a lectured on international cooperation, migration governance, and environmental geopolitics at Sciences Po Paris, Paris 13-Sorbonne University, and at the Brussels School of Journalism and Communication. Sara has also been a visiting researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, at the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management.

Sara holds a joint PhD degree in Development Studies and Social and Political Sciences from the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands and from the University of Liege in Belgium. She also has a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University Paris V-Sorbonne. Sara is an Associate Research Fellow at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, at the Centre of Philosophy, Politics and Epistemology and at The Hugo Observatory. Sara is fluent in English, Spanish and French.

Publications Authored Externally to SEI

Vigil, Sara. 2019. Geopolitical Ecologies of Environmental Change, Land Grabbing and Migration: Comparative Perspectives from Senegal and Cambodia. Center for Local Democracy. International Institute for Social Studies. Erasmus University Rotterdam and University of Liege.

Vigil, Sara. 2018. “Green Grabbing-Induced Displacement.” In The Handbook on Environmental Displacement and Migration, 370-387, New York: Routledge.

Vigil, Sara. 2017. “Climate Change and Migration. Insights from the Sahel.” In Out of Africa. Why People Migrate., Ledi Publishing, 51–71. Milan, Itali: ISPI.

Melde, Susanne, Luka De Bruyckere, Sara Vigil, and Francois Gemenne. 2017. “‘Implications of Migration, Displacement and Planned Relocation for Adaptation: Empirical Results.’” MECLEP Final Comparative Report. International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Schütte, Stefanie, Anneliese Depoux, Sara Vigil, Corinne Kowalski, François Gemenne, and Antoine Flahault. 2017. “The Influence of Health Concerns in Scientific and Policy Debates on Climate Change.” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 71 (8): 747.

Vigil, Sara. 2016. “Migrations environnementales? Ramener le politique au cœur du débat.” Cités, Presses Universitaires de France., no. 68: 61–76.

Gemenne, Francois, Julia Blocher, Florence de Longueville, Nathalie Perrin, Sara Vigil, Caroline Zickgraf, and Pierre Ozer. 2015. “How Climate Extremes Are Affecting the Movement of Populations in the Asia Pacific Region.” In Global Implications of Development, Disasters and Climate Change: Responses to Displacement from Asia Pacific, 21–40. New York: Routledge.

Vigil, Sara. 2015. “Une Cause Invisible de Migrations: La Tragédie de l’Accaparement Des Terres.” Politiques Du Capital, Presses Universitaires de France, no. 64: 111–23.

Zickgraf, Caroline, Florence de Longueville, Pierre Ozer, Francois Gemenne, and Sara Vigil. 2016. “The Impact of Vulnerability and Resilience to Environmental Changes on Mobility Patterns in West Africa.” Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD). Washington, D.C: World Bank.

Vigil, Sara. 2015. “Displacement as a Consequence of Climate Change Mitigation Policies.” Disasters and Displacement in a Changing Climate, Forced Migration Review. University of Oxford, no. 49: 43–45.

Blocher, Julia, Dalila Gharbaoui, and Sara Vigil. 2015. “West Africa: A Testing Ground for Regional Solutions.” Disasters and Displacement in a Changing Climate, Forced Migration Review. University of Oxford, no. 49: 18–20.

Gemenne, Francois, Julia Blocher, Florence de Longueville, Nathalie Perrin, Sara Vigil, Caroline Zickgraf, and Pierre Ozer. 2014. “‘Catastrophes, Changement Climatique et Déplacements Forcés: Dynamiques Régionales de Mobilité En Afrique de l’Ouest.’” Background Paper for the Nansen Initiative.