Those following climate change news might already know that the 600 islands comprising the Federated States of Micronesia are waging a battle with climate change: mainly rising sea levels. What many may not know is that, outside of Hawaii, Portland is one of the most popular places for Micronesians to relocate in the United States. Whether it be in search of better prospects, reconnections, a changing environment at home or other, many of these new Portland residents worry about the seas overtaking their ancestral homes.

No one seems to know for sure where the connection to Oregon began, but some Micronesians believe, as is usual, a small group of elders who attended Eastern Oregon University might be the diaspora connection. 

Now in beautiful testimonials, these Micronesians in Portland speak wistfully of a life once spent on beautiful Pacific Ocean islands and how many, not unlike refugees we have formally resettled all over the world, struggle to maintain their cultural heritage in their newfound homes. 

Dexter Moluputo, who grew up on the island Houk, measuring just over one square mile, says life was spent fishing and growing crops, just as his ancestors had for centuries. He says “over there you don’t work for money. Just to eat.” 

Now thousands of miles away in a climate and culture vastly different from his home, he thinks longingly of foods found only at home and the precarious plight of his homeland, which could soon become uninhabitable, not only because of rising seas, but because stronger typhoons have spread salt all over the island, rendering crop cultivation almost impossible. 

Berely Mack from the Micronesian island of Kapingamarangi says he returned to his home island three years ago in shock, dismay and the undeniable proof of the impacts of climate change when he experienced the water levels at higher ground. 

These Pacific Islanders worry for their homelands, worry for their generational lost heritage and the steady sense of disorientation that has come with the loss of living by and off the ocean in this enforced need to transplant roots. But many are forging ahead, bringing their food, culture and way of life with them to their new homes, while worries for their ancestral homes rise, just like its seas. (Portland Tribune) 

Note:

Although the media and this journalist uses the term ‘climate refugee’, as do we but for different reasons, including to provoke a conversation along lines of protection, justice and equality - see “The Problem” - these Micronesians are not ‘refugees’ in a legal sense since climate change or environmental degradation is not a protected refugee ground in international law. Regardless of terminology though, this article more than demonstrates what is at stake, and beyond forced displacement, as with all displaced people, including refugees, what is lost when one is forced into a life of exile from one’s homeland.