Climate migrants or refugees are victims of global warming and climate change, being forced to move away from their places of origin or homes due to unhabitable conditions. There were 25 million climate refugees in 1995, and this number is expected to increase to 200 million in 2050. The mass migration of people from rural and coastal regions is attributed to the drastic change in environmental conditions.
Countries such as Bangladesh have been faced with the problem of tackling rapid urbanisation at a huge scale. Policy and practice are required to evolve into a vertically integrated decision-making system that would link national, regional and local planning to address climate migration.
On August 25, 2021, Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, conducted a #WebPolicy Talk as part of the running series #CityConversations on the topic ‘Climate Migration and Urban Planning in Bangladesh: Impact and Way Forward’. The Center for Habitat, Urban and Regional Studies at IMPRI invited Dr Reazul Ahsan, Assistant Professor, Department of City and Metropolitan Planning, University of Utah, Salt Lake, the USA, as the guest speaker for the talk.
Dr Bina Sengar, Assistant Professor, School of History and Ancient Indian Culture, Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad, was one of the discussants in the talk. The session was moderated by Dr Simi Mehta, CEO and Editorial Director, IMPRI, New Delhi.
Dr Ahsan opened the discussion by emphasising that climate migration is not accounted for in the conventional migration theory. The surge in climate refugees could be seen as a recent phenomenon, because of which most countries are not equipped to support them as countries still see people seeking refuge because of political or religious persecution.
Migrants under the traditional theory of migration (theorised upon economic migration) respond to push and pull factors. Climate migration is not based on these factors as they are cornered into a position to migrate. This sort of migration is not well-planned and is done with immediacy, therefore, limiting their options. Climate migration is seen as a multicausal phenomenon, yet, environmental players play a major role here, unlike in economic migration where choice takes centre stage. Climate migration has never been addressed directly by most multi-lateral international organisations or developed countries.
Dr Ahsan further elaborated on the timeline of events relating to the changes in recognising climate migration, and the origin and evolution of the discourse around climate change and migration. He discussed multiple scenarios where climate change or the consequences of rising sea level may have on the coastal regions of Bangladesh. Dr Ahsan shared certain photographs of the aspects that he witnessed in Bangladesh, such as the erection of poor housing on top of sewage treatment pipelines. Most of these housing clusters are constructed around unhygienic spaces using weak construction materials.
Climate refugees have to depend on low-cost housing with an even lower standard of living. — Dr Reazul Ahsan
He emphasised the fact that forced migration causes urbanisation, which in turn creates informal settlements to meet housing needs and increases urban services. To tackle climate migration, Bangladesh has been preparing policy papers to set precedence over the conduct of administration to control and contain migration.
National Adaptation Programs of Action ( NAPA) 2005 set the precedence by identifying migration as an undesirable outcome of climate change. However, Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP), which is based on NAPA 2005, did not have any policy designated for migrants. The BCCSAP also recognised that “hundreds of thousands of people” would have to migrate primarily from coastal areas. Similarly, the National Plan for Disaster Management did not take into account the consequence of resettlement.
Upon concluding his remark, Dr Sengar took over the discussion to give a few pointers of her own and provide her observations on the presentation. Dr Sengar was particularly impressed by the approach the Bangladeshi government has taken that focuses on working on the ground level.
Dr Sengar also shared the details of the project she is involved with currently that deals with similar issues, and touched upon the reaction of host countries to incoming refugees. She also mentioned the repercussions faced by countries as part of an imperialist economy that does not recognise disasters or displacement of people due to adverse climate change.
Acknowledgement: Arjun Sujit Varma is a research intern at IMPRI.
Youtube video for Climate Migration and Urban Planning in Bangladesh: Impact and Way Forward
