Celia Mcmichael
Biographic Data
| ID | 642793 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Celia Mcmichael |
| GIVEN NAMES | Celia |
| FAMILY NAME | Mcmichael |
| SIGNATURE | MCMICHAEL C |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Melbourne |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4572-602X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 58 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 377 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 58 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Life after climate-related planned relocation: A review of well-being outcomes
As the impacts of climate change erode the habitability of places, planned relocation of communities away from climate-related risks is increasingly proposed and implemented as an adaptation strategy. However, little is known about how planned relocation affects people’s well-being beyond individual case studies. Based on qualitative content analysis of 16 empirical case studies of planned relocation in response to climate-related processes and e…
Islandness and resilience: A study of food systems in the Maldives
Food systems in Small Island Developing States are considered vulnerable to shocks. • In the Maldives, islanders employ multiple strategies to increase food system resilience. • They anticipate and adapt to shocks and disruptions to food systems. • Challenging the vulnerability paradigm, this paper highlights Islander’s resilience. Islands have long been depicted as vulnerable, lacking in resources, and constrained in their ability to adapt and r…
Research recruitment methods when participant safety and stigma are concerns: The case of sex trafficking survivors
Climate change and the planned relocation of people: A longitudinal analysis of Vunidogoloa, Fiji
The 2024 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: Facing record-breaking threats from delayed action
Partial planned relocation and livelihoods: Learnings from Narikoso, Fiji
Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are vulnerable to climate change impacts, including sea level rise, extreme weather events and other environmental changes. Planned relocation can be an adaptive response to climatic threats. In Fiji, six communities have already relocated. While there is growing interest in planned relocation, there are few empirical case studies from which to learn. Narikoso village, in the Kadavu Province of Fiji, undertook part…
Framing locally led adaptation in a planned relocation in Fiji
The 2023 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: The imperative for a health-centred response in a world facing irreversible harms
The 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: Health at the mercy of fossil fuels
Investing in home: Development outcomes and climate change adaptation for seasonal workers living between Solomon Islands and Australia
Labour migration is considered an important pathway for improving economic development in countries of origin. In recent years, labour migration, through the ‘migration as adaptation’ discourse, has been further positioned as a response to changing environmental conditions in places of high climate risk, such as the Pacific Islands region. However, limited empirical work examines whether and how labour mobility schemes enhance both development ou…
Preparing for a post-net-zero world
Tracking the impacts of climate change on human health via indicators: Lessons from the Lancet Countdown
Our experience shows that CCIEVIs can effectively contribute to a world-wide monitoring system that aims to track, communicate, and harness evidence on climate-induced health impacts towards effective intervention strategies. An ongoing challenge is how to improve CCIEVIs so that the description of the linkages between climate change and human health can become more and more comprehensive
Waiting for the wave, but missing the tide: Case studies of climate-related (im)mobility and health
Climate change amplifies health risks, including through the health impacts of climate-related displacement. Yet diverse mobility responses in a warming world can also provide a pathway for climate change adaptation. This article examines the connections between climatic and environmental change, human mobility and health. It presents case studies across three countries: Fiji, Bangladesh, and Burkina Faso. All case studies used qualitative method…
Climate change adaptation in agriculture: Learning from an international labour mobility programme in Australia and the Pacific Islands region
International student mobility: Pacific Islander experiences of higher education in Australia
Tertiary education scholarships for individual students from developing countries, including those in the Pacific Islands, are a key pillar of Australia's development policy. Understanding students' experiences of these scholarships are important in identifying both positives and challenges, which can help foster improved future opportunities. This is especially the case for Pacific Islander students engaging in the Australia Awards Scholarship p…
Experiences of i-Kiribati with labor mobility schemes
Circular labor mobility provides opportunities for Pacific Islanders to upskill whilst alleviating labor shortages in Australia and New Zealand. Past studies have sought to understand the value of the labor schemes, yet very few have focused on the experiences of i-Kiribati participants. Drawing on preliminary insights from eight semi-structured interviews, this research offers specific examples of the benefits of labor mobility in Australia and …
The 2021 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: Code red for a healthy future
The 2020 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: Responding to converging crises
Planned Relocation and Health: A Case Study from Fiji
In Fiji, low-lying coastal villages are beginning to retreat and relocate in response to coastal erosion, flooding and saltwater intrusion. Planned relocation is considered a last resort as a form of adaptation to the impacts of climatic and environmental change. The health impacts of planned relocation are poorly understood. This paper draws on data from multi-year research with residents of the iTaukei (Indigenous) Fijian village of Vunidogoloa…
The political economy of restricting marketing to address the double burden of malnutrition: Two case studies from Fiji
Objective: To draw lessons from Fiji regarding the challenges and opportunities for policy initiatives to restrict (i) food marketing to children and (ii) marketing of breast milk substitutes, to inform policy for the double burden of malnutrition. Design: Qualitative political economy analysis of two policy case studies. Setting: Fiji. Participants: Eleven key informants from relevant sectors, representing public health, economic and consumer in…
Spatial and temporal ways of knowing sea level rise: Bringing together multiple perspectives
Sea level rise presents risks to ecosystems, populations, and infrastructure in low‐lying areas. This article considers diverse ways of knowing, understanding, and experiencing these risks. It explores differences and connections between knowledge produced through the technological methods of scientific research and that which emerges through the experiences and insights of local people. For example, while scientific assessments measure and forec…
Spaces of well‐being and regional settlement: International migrants and the rural idyll
Regionalisation is a hallmark of Australia's approach to international migration, reflecting governments' growing concern with where new arrivals live. Residence in regional Australia is encouraged (mandated, for some visas) in response to urban population pressures alongside rural population and economic decline. Parallel to regionally focused visa schemes exists a pattern of voluntary urban‐to‐rural migration among some international migrants. …
The immobility-relocation continuum: Diverse responses to coastal change in a small island state
Rising seas, immobilities, and translocality in small island states: Case studies from Fiji and Tuvalu
Relocation planning must address voluntary immobility
Indigenous (im)mobilities in the Anthropocene
This paper explores Indigenous (im)mobilities in the Anthropocene, and their relationship to Pacific Islands climate activism. In a context where Indigenous peoples and perspectives are poorly represented in global climate politics, it is important to understand how Pacific people represent their own interests and imagine their own futures as pressures to move due to climate change take hold. We examine political action outside of formal governan…
Everywhere is Allah's Place: Islam and the Everyday Life of Somali Women in Melbourne, Australia
Everywhere is Allah's Place': Islam and the Everyday Life of Somali Women in Melbourne, Australia Celia McMichael Celia McMichael Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Refugee Studies, Volume 15, Issue 2, June 2002, Pages 171–188, https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/15.2.171 Published: 01 June 2002
Voluntary immobility and existential security in a changing climate in the Pacific
With the expectation of adverse climate change impacts, some (often majority) Indigenous populations of the Pacific are expressing a preference to remain on Indigenous lands for cultural and spiritual reasons. In some cases, Indigenous people express preparedness to die on traditional territory rather than relocate, representing a new type of agency and resistance to dispossession. This is a prominent politics of place of relevance to emerging de…
Planned relocation and everyday agency in low-lying coastal villages in Fiji
Relocation of communities is widely expected to be an adaptive response to sea-level rise, albeit a last resort after exhausting other adaptation options. It is a phenomenon, however, from which there are few examples to learn. This paper examines relocation processes underway in three low-lying coastal villages in Fiji, each affected by coastal erosion and flooding. Drawing on the concept of "everyday agency," it considers how environmental chan…
The persistence of predictors of wellbeing among refugee youth eight years after resettlement in Melbourne, Australia
Mobility and security: The Perceived Benefits of Citizenship for Resettled Young People From Refugee Backgrounds
In recent decades, the meaning and value of formal state citizenship has shifted dramatically. In the same period, scholarship on citizenship has drawn attention to the proliferation of alternative forms of sub-, supra- and transnational citizenship, at times obscuring the ongoing importance of formal state citizenship. For refugees, however, formal state citizenship remains a critical and widely shared goal. Drawing on interviews with 51 young p…
Thick temporalities of planned relocation in Fiji
Studying Refugee Settlement through Longitudinal Research: Methodological and Ethical Insights from the Good Starts Study
Research involving resettled refugees raises methodological and ethical complexities. These complexities typically emerge within cross-sectional research that focuses on refugee experiences at a specific point in time. Given the long-term and dynamic nature of refugee settlement, longitudinal research is valuable, yet it raises distinct complexities within the research process. This article focuses on the methodological and ethical insights that …
Negotiating family, navigating resettlement: Family connectedness amongst resettled youth with refugee backgrounds living in Melbourne, Australia
Refugee adolescents resettling in a new country face many challenges, and being part of a supportive family is a critical factor in assisting them to achieve wellbeing and create positive futures. This longitudinal study documents experiences of family life in the resettlement context of 120 young people with refugee backgrounds living in Melbourne, Australia. Family instability was a core feature of the early settlement period. In this paper, we…
I came to this country for a better life’: Factors mediating employment trajectories among young people who migrated to Australia as refugees during adolescence
Located at the intersection of two vulnerable groups in the contemporary labour market, young people who migrate as refugees during adolescence face a unique constellation of opportunities and challenges that shape their employment trajectories. Yet the tendency for research to focus on the early years of refugee settlement means that we have an inadequate understanding the factors that mediate their employment decisions, experiences and outcomes…
The effects of climate change on the geography and timing of human mobility
Spaces of well‐being and regional settlement: International migrants and the rural idyll
Regionalisation is a hallmark of Australia's approach to international migration, reflecting governments' growing concern with where new arrivals live. Residence in regional Australia is encouraged (mandated, for some visas) in response to urban population pressures alongside rural population and economic decline. Parallel to regionally focused visa schemes exists a pattern of voluntary urban‐to‐rural migration among some international migrants. …
Transformative mobilities in the P acific: Promoting adaptation and development in a changing climate
Climate change is affecting Pacific life in significant and complex ways. Human mobility is shaped by climate change and is increasingly positioned by international agencies, policymakers, and governments as having an important role in both climate change adaptation and human development. We consider the potential for human mobility to promote adaptation and development among Pacific people in a changing climate. We argue that where Pacific peopl…
Navigating Precarious Terrains: Reconceptualizing Refugee-Youth Settlement
Settlement is widely understood as the final stage of the refugee journey: a durable solution to forced displacement and a stable environment in which former refugees can rebuild their lives. However, settlement is shaped by rapidly changing socio-political forces producing contingent, unpredictable, and even hostile environments. This article draws upon Vigh’s concept of social navigation to reconceptualize settlement as a continuation of a frau…
Spatial and temporal ways of knowing sea level rise: Bringing together multiple perspectives
Sea level rise presents risks to ecosystems, populations, and infrastructure in low‐lying areas. This article considers diverse ways of knowing, understanding, and experiencing these risks. It explores differences and connections between knowledge produced through the technological methods of scientific research and that which emerges through the experiences and insights of local people. For example, while scientific assessments measure and forec…
Predictors of Secondary School Completion Among Refugee Youth 8 to 9 Years After Resettlement in Melbourne, Australia
Rising seas, immobilities, and translocality in small island states: Case studies from Fiji and Tuvalu
Unplanned but not unwanted? Teen pregnancy and parenthood among young people with refugee backgrounds
African-born young women with refugee backgrounds in Victoria, Australia, are experiencing elevated rates of teen pregnancy and early parenthood relative to other young women. Drawing primarily on qualitative data from a longitudinal study of settlement and well-being of refugee youth, this article examines the ways young women with refugee backgrounds negotiate teen pregnancy and early motherhood while also managing the challenges of early settl…
Return visits and belonging to countries of origin among young people from refugee backgrounds
In this article, we explore the return visits of resettled young people from refugee backgrounds to their personal and/or ancestral countries of origin. We draw on qualitative data from a longitudinal study of people who fled their country of origin at an early age, many of whom were born or lived for protracted periods in countries of asylum, and resettled in Australia. We demonstrate that return visits are not simply a homecoming; the young peo…
Climate change adaptation in agriculture: Learning from an international labour mobility programme in Australia and the Pacific Islands region
The immobility-relocation continuum: Diverse responses to coastal change in a small island state
Drivers of sustained hygiene behaviour change: A case study from mid-western Nepal
Factors Influencing Contraception Awareness and Use: The Experiences of Young African Australian mothers
The aim of this study was to examine contraception awareness and use among African Australian women in Melbourne, Australia, who have experienced teenage pregnancy, and to explore the social contexts that shape these women's attitudes towards contraception. Among young immigrant and refugee women living in sites of settlement, knowledge and use of contraception are a public health concern. The study used a qualitative research approach and was in…
Framing locally led adaptation in a planned relocation in Fiji
Waiting for the wave, but missing the tide: Case studies of climate-related (im)mobility and health
Climate change amplifies health risks, including through the health impacts of climate-related displacement. Yet diverse mobility responses in a warming world can also provide a pathway for climate change adaptation. This article examines the connections between climatic and environmental change, human mobility and health. It presents case studies across three countries: Fiji, Bangladesh, and Burkina Faso. All case studies used qualitative method…
Everywhere is Allah's Place: Islam and the Everyday Life of Somali Women in Melbourne, Australia
Everywhere is Allah's Place': Islam and the Everyday Life of Somali Women in Melbourne, Australia Celia McMichael Celia McMichael Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Refugee Studies, Volume 15, Issue 2, June 2002, Pages 171–188, https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/15.2.171 Published: 01 June 2002
Somali Women and Well-Being: Social Networks and Social Capital among Immigrant Women in Australia
Somalis have been one of the largest groups to migrate to Australia under its provisions for refugee and humanitarian resettlement. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Melbourne in 2000-2001, we explore how the loss of social relationships as a result of civil war and displacement contribute to women’s distress and sadness. To explore the erosion of social relationships among Somalis in Australia, and how this affects everyday life and …
Doing Health Anthropology: Research Methods for Community Assessment and Change
Chapter 1: Why Anthropology? Guide to This Chapter What Is Cultural Anthropology? The Concept of Culture How Do Cultural Anthropologists Collect Data? How Do Cultural Anthropologists Analyze Data? The Advantages of Anthropology for the Health Sciences The Mighty Disease Model The Social Perspective on Health Why Isn't the Social Perspective More Widely Used? The Advantages of the Social Perspective Summary Chapter 2: Positivism: The Laboratory Th…
“It is Good to Know Now…Before it’s Too Late”: Promoting Sexual Health Literacy Amongst Resettled Young People With Refugee Backgrounds
Narratives of sexual health risk and protection amongst young people from refugee backgrounds in Melbourne, Australia
Young people with refugee backgrounds face many challenges when making their lives in a resettlement country and their sexual and reproductive health needs are often overlooked. This paper reports on sexual health literacy amongst recently arrived young refugees settling in Melbourne, Australia. Qualitative methods were used to explore how resettled youth access, interpret and implement sexual health information, with a particular focus on how so…
Negotiating family, navigating resettlement: Family connectedness amongst resettled youth with refugee backgrounds living in Melbourne, Australia
Refugee adolescents resettling in a new country face many challenges, and being part of a supportive family is a critical factor in assisting them to achieve wellbeing and create positive futures. This longitudinal study documents experiences of family life in the resettlement context of 120 young people with refugee backgrounds living in Melbourne, Australia. Family instability was a core feature of the early settlement period. In this paper, we…
An Ill Wind? Climate Change, Migration, and Health
Background: Climate change is projected to cause substantial increases in population movement in coming decades. Previous research has considered the likely causal influences and magnitude of such movements and the risks to national and international security. There has been little research on the consequences of climate-related migration and the health of people who move. Objectives: In this review, we explore the role that health impacts of cli…
Unplanned but not unwanted? Teen pregnancy and parenthood among young people with refugee backgrounds
African-born young women with refugee backgrounds in Victoria, Australia, are experiencing elevated rates of teen pregnancy and early parenthood relative to other young women. Drawing primarily on qualitative data from a longitudinal study of settlement and well-being of refugee youth, this article examines the ways young women with refugee backgrounds negotiate teen pregnancy and early motherhood while also managing the challenges of early settl…
I came to this country for a better life’: Factors mediating employment trajectories among young people who migrated to Australia as refugees during adolescence
Located at the intersection of two vulnerable groups in the contemporary labour market, young people who migrate as refugees during adolescence face a unique constellation of opportunities and challenges that shape their employment trajectories. Yet the tendency for research to focus on the early years of refugee settlement means that we have an inadequate understanding the factors that mediate their employment decisions, experiences and outcomes…
Studying Refugee Settlement through Longitudinal Research: Methodological and Ethical Insights from the Good Starts Study
Research involving resettled refugees raises methodological and ethical complexities. These complexities typically emerge within cross-sectional research that focuses on refugee experiences at a specific point in time. Given the long-term and dynamic nature of refugee settlement, longitudinal research is valuable, yet it raises distinct complexities within the research process. This article focuses on the methodological and ethical insights that …
Early motherhood: A qualitative study exploring the experiences of African Australian teenage mothers in greater Melbourne, Australia
We propose that service providers and policy makers support the role of the young mothers' own mother, sisters, their grandmothers and aunts following early motherhood. Such support from significant females will help facilitate young mothers' re-engagement with education, work and other aspects of life. For young migrant mothers, this is particularly important in order to facilitate settlement in a new country and reduce the risk of subsequent mi…
Factors Influencing Contraception Awareness and Use: The Experiences of Young African Australian mothers
The aim of this study was to examine contraception awareness and use among African Australian women in Melbourne, Australia, who have experienced teenage pregnancy, and to explore the social contexts that shape these women's attitudes towards contraception. Among young immigrant and refugee women living in sites of settlement, knowledge and use of contraception are a public health concern. The study used a qualitative research approach and was in…
The persistence of predictors of wellbeing among refugee youth eight years after resettlement in Melbourne, Australia
Through their eyes: Seeing experiences of settlement in photographs taken by refugee background youth in Melbourne, Australia
Although ‘refugees’ are frequently represented in visual media, it is predominantly as the central subject matter and rarely are they positioned as the photographers of their own journeys. In this article, we present photographic images that have been taken by refugee background youth portraying their experiences of the first years of settlement in Australia. We consider how, in our longitudinal research conducted with 120 refugee background yout…
Drivers of sustained hygiene behaviour change: A case study from mid-western Nepal
Mobility and security: The Perceived Benefits of Citizenship for Resettled Young People From Refugee Backgrounds
In recent decades, the meaning and value of formal state citizenship has shifted dramatically. In the same period, scholarship on citizenship has drawn attention to the proliferation of alternative forms of sub-, supra- and transnational citizenship, at times obscuring the ongoing importance of formal state citizenship. For refugees, however, formal state citizenship remains a critical and widely shared goal. Drawing on interviews with 51 young p…
Health equity and migrants in the Greater Mekong Subregion
BACKGROUND: Migrant health is receiving increasing international attention, reflecting recognition of the health inequities experienced among many migrant populations and the need for health systems to adapt to diverse migrant populations. In the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) there is increasing migration associated with uneven economic integration and growth, socio-economic vulnerabilities, and disparities between countries. There has been limi…
We invited the disease to come to us”: Neoliberal public health discourse and local understanding of non-communicable disease causation in Fiji
Rates of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are increasing globally, particularly amongst low- and middle-income countries. Critical public health scholars have argued that while political and socio-economic factors shape health outcomes within particular environments, neoliberal public health efforts tend to emphasise individual responsibility to avoid behavioural risks and ‘choose’ health. Yet there is little analysis of how these discourses abou…
Navigating Precarious Terrains: Reconceptualizing Refugee-Youth Settlement
Settlement is widely understood as the final stage of the refugee journey: a durable solution to forced displacement and a stable environment in which former refugees can rebuild their lives. However, settlement is shaped by rapidly changing socio-political forces producing contingent, unpredictable, and even hostile environments. This article draws upon Vigh’s concept of social navigation to reconceptualize settlement as a continuation of a frau…
Return visits and belonging to countries of origin among young people from refugee backgrounds
In this article, we explore the return visits of resettled young people from refugee backgrounds to their personal and/or ancestral countries of origin. We draw on qualitative data from a longitudinal study of people who fled their country of origin at an early age, many of whom were born or lived for protracted periods in countries of asylum, and resettled in Australia. We demonstrate that return visits are not simply a homecoming; the young peo…
Predictors of Secondary School Completion Among Refugee Youth 8 to 9 Years After Resettlement in Melbourne, Australia
Transformative mobilities in the P acific: Promoting adaptation and development in a changing climate
Climate change is affecting Pacific life in significant and complex ways. Human mobility is shaped by climate change and is increasingly positioned by international agencies, policymakers, and governments as having an important role in both climate change adaptation and human development. We consider the potential for human mobility to promote adaptation and development among Pacific people in a changing climate. We argue that where Pacific peopl…
The effects of climate change on the geography and timing of human mobility
Toilet Talk: Eliminating Open Defecation and Improved Sanitation in Nepal
Globally, 2.4 billion people lack adequate sanitation, and open defecation remains common. In this article, I present the qualitative findings from an evaluation of a water, sanitation, and hygiene intervention in remote, mid-West Nepal. The evaluation, conducted in 2014, involved villagers from eight wards in Kotgaun Village Development Committee. Drawing on the concept of the "toilet tripod," I argue as follows: multi-scalar political will prov…
The Impact of a School-Based Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Intervention on Knowledge, Practices, and Diarrhoea Rates in the Philippines
A school-based water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) intervention in the Philippines was evaluated. Students and households from four schools that received the WASH intervention (intervention schools) were compared with four schools that had not (comparison schools). Knowledge of critical handwashing times was high across all schools, but higher in intervention schools. Students reported higher rates of handwashing after toilet use (92% vs. 87%; …
Sociology (35 works) · Political science (31 works) · Geography (24 works) · Medicine (24 works) · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration (22 works) · Climate change (18 works) · Psychology (18 works) · Refugee (17 works) · Economics (15 works) · Economic growth (14 works)