The Cost of No Category: Legal Invisibility and Climate-Driven Displacement in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Abstract

This article investigates how the absence of an integrated, rights-bearing policy category for climate-driven displacement shaped the response to the 2024 floods in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Anchored in the concept of borderscapes, Saskia Sassen's notion of expulsions, and Milton Santos's understanding of the unequal use of territory, the study approaches displacement not only as a humanitarian problem but also as a governance challenge produced by administrative fragmentation. Through a case study combining legal and policy documents, public communications, media and monitoring sources, secondary indicators, and reflexive field material, the article shows that Brazilian civil-defence categories such as desabrigado and desalojado were essential for emergency action but did not constitute an interoperable climate-displacement status capable of following people across sectors and municipalities. The findings reveal fragmented governance between federal, state, and municipal levels, unequal territorial capacities, and discontinuities in access to income support, housing, documentation, services, and reconstruction. The article argues that the 'non-category' problem is not literal absence of administrative labels, but the absence of a portable rights framework that recognises displacement as a trajectory. It proposes integrating climate displacement into Brazil's disaster management, social protection, housing, and territorial planning systems through a flexible, anticipatory, and rights-oriented framework.