Mobile displacement or displaced mobility?: Using transition theory to challenge migration-displacement binaries and biases.

The article focuses on the complex and fluid relationship between displacement and mobility amid conflict- and climate-driven population movements, challenging binary categorizations commonly used in academia and humanitarian practice. It introduces an integrated theoretical framework combining Schlossberg's transition theory with concepts of coping versus adapting and the idea of "tipping points" to better understand how individuals experience and define their movement as either displacement or mobility. Drawing on case studies of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Mozambique and pastoralists and semi-pastoralists in Ethiopia, the research illustrates how people may transition between voluntary migration and forced displacement, influenced by factors such as security, livelihoods, social support, and individual agency. The findings emphasize the need for nuanced, dynamic approaches that prioritize affected individuals’ perceptions and challenge prevailing sedentarist and mobility biases in policy and humanitarian responses.