Environmental Migrants: The Last Illusion (Italian: Migranti Ambientali: L’Ultima Illusione), by Alessandro Grassani, is a long-term documentary project made from 2011 to 2016 in Mongolia, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Haiti, following climate-driven moves from rural livelihoods into capital-city informal settlements. Grassani treats migration as a trade-off rather than an escape: leaving rural livelihoods can mean entering cities where work is insecure, housing unstable, and rights unclear. The title marks the distance between expectation and outcome, and the series links that distance to climate justice in places least responsible for emissions.
A consistent visual pattern carries those ideas, moving from rural scenes of environmental strain—Mongolia’s severe winters, drought-related scarcity and conflict in Kenya, and floods or cyclones in Bangladesh and Haiti—to the urban periphery, where improvised architecture and strained infrastructure compress daily routines. In this rural-to-city progression, the sequence presents migration as an unfolding process rather than a one-time rupture.
Behind that progression sits a methodical production process. Grassani began with pre-visualization—researching demographic and climate sources, identifying locations, and outlining a narrative that would connect rural pressure to urban arrival before making pictures. In the field, extended stays and repeated visits supported steady observation, while interviews and notes informed captions and the final edit.
The project’s reception is marked by early awards and sustained exhibition exposure. It won the Luis Valtueña International Humanitarian Photography Award (2011), earned 3rd Place at the 2012 Sony World Photography Awards (Professional, Contemporary Issues), and appeared at Cortona On The Move (2012). Later, it received the Premio Amilcare Ponchielli (2014) and was presented with the UN and IOM, including in Paris at the Palais de la Porte Dorée.
