Climate change is reshaping human (im)mobilities, and so are interventions intended to mitigate or adapt to them. Yet the ways in which injustices related to climate mitigation and adaptation projects constrain voluntary and involuntary (im)mobilities remain underexamined, especially in transboundary contexts. This paper addresses this gap by analysing how transboundary hydropower development in the Mekong River generates injustices that shape (im)mobilities of downstream communities in Northeast Thailand.

Drawing on fieldwork and key informant interviews conducted in 2024 analysed through Nancy Fraser’s three-dimensional justice framework (economic redistribution, cultural recognition and political representation), the authors demonstrate that climate (im)mobility injustice is produced through three interconnected processes: economic destabilisation of river-based livelihoods, which constrains (im)mobility capacities; erosion of situated ecological knowledge and place-based attachments that anchor aspirations to stay; and political exclusions that deny downstream Thai communities standing as affected parties, foreclosing claims-making that could support desired (im)mobilities. They further highlight how affected communities contest these injustices to ground entry points for climate (im)mobility justice. In doing so, this paper contributes evidence of how injustices related to transboundary hydropower development constrain desired (im)mobilities across the voluntary-involuntary continuum.