Mass migration is no ‘crisis’: it’s the new normal as the climate changes | Ellie Mae O’Hagan

What's the common factor between the tragic deaths of refugees in the Mediterranean and the Arab spring? Food shortages driven by global warming

I've been interested in the way the migrant crisis is being debated in politics and the media. It's that word - crisis - that is particularly striking. It suggests that what we're seeing in across Europe is an aberration, a temporary disaster to be "solved" by politicians. Even the sight of ramshackle tents in Calais suggests a phenomenon that could be cleared away at any given moment.

In The Concept of the Political, the philosopher Carl Schmitt argued that, when presented with crisis, liberal democracies will put aside constitutional niceties in order to survive. The public consents to its government violating liberal values because crisis is a state of exception, which requires desperate measures.

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