Climate Change-Migration-Cities_2021.pdf

1. Environmental Challenges 5 (2021) 100242
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Environmental Challenges
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envc
Climate change and migration impacts on cities: Lessons from Bangladesh
Md Masud Parves Ranaa,b,∗
, Irina N. Ilinaa
a
Institute of Regional Studies and Urban Planning, HSE, Moscow, Russia
b
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh
a r t i c l e i n f o
Keywords:
Climate change
Migration
Migrants
Refugees
Urban poor
Urban consequences
a b s t r a c t
A rapidly growing research field in relation to climate change, vulnerability and human migration has been
recognised by the academics and practitioners. Thus, it is also important to understand the relationship between
climate-induced migration and urban consequences. This paper aims to review the recent trends of climate change
and urbanization research to explore the nexus between climate-induced human mobility and subsequent impact
on cities in Bangladesh. Notably, the climate-induced migration literature somewhat stagnated in theorising the
concepts of ‘migration as adaptation’ and investigating the causes, drivers, factors and dynamics of decision-
making in relation to migration or displacements. Little attention has been paid to the urban consequences of
overwhelming migration to the cities of developing countries, such as Bangladesh. Reviewing available empir-
ical evidence, this paper claims that Bangladesh needs a systematic transformative territorial/spatial planning
approach to identify the weaknesses and strengths of particular regions as well as cities to deal with impacts
of climate-induced migration. It indicates that making resilient cities would be impossible without sufficient
and simultaneous considerations of rural resilience. The paper also suggests that further research and access to
migration data would be a prerequisite to solve the problems.
1. Introduction
Climate change has been accelerating old forces of destruction, cre-
ating new patterns of human displacements, exacerbating existing vul-
nerability and fuelling an explosion of rapid and chaotic urbaniza-
tion (McDonnell, 2019; Eriksen et al., 2015; IPCC 2014; Ali, 1999).
Consequently, a rapidly growing research field in relation to cli-
mate change, vulnerability and human migration has been recog-
nised by the academics and practitioners. A handful number of stud-
ies have paid considerable attention to the pathways of climate change
adaptation. Until recently human migration has been conceived as a
strategy of finding desirable livelihood opportunities in a new des-
tination by escaping from the environmental risks and vulnerabili-
ties in origins (Khatun et al., 2021). Various studies have termed
this type of migration as climate-induced migration (Baldwin et al.,
2014), climate-induced internal displacement (Siddiqui et al., 2015),
climate-driven displacement (McDonnell, 2019), environmental migra-
tion (Priovashini and Mallick, 2021), or simply human displacement
(Mallick and Vogt, 2013). Despite manifold terminologies and dis-
courses, a common interest was to highlight the consequences of climate
change migration and vulnerabilities.
Nonetheless, the debate on climate change adaptation and its con-
sequences has emerged in various multidisciplinary points of view.
∗
Corresponding author at: Institute of Regional Studies and Urban Planning, HSE, Moscow, Russia.
E-mail addresses: mprges@ru.ac.bd (M.M.P. Rana), iilina@hse.ru (I.N. Ilina).
Baldwin et al. (2014) note that the origins of climate change-induced
migration started in the 1980s, when scientists and environmentalists
claimed that environmental change could lead to severe human dis-
placement. As they conclude, the debate is still dominated by futurology,
since our knowledge and practices about climate-induced migration are
mostly speculative (Baldwin et al., 2014). Bettini (2014) states that “for
almost two decades, a sharp polarization carved the debate on climate-
induced migration, opposing two irreconcilable factions- the maximal-
ist versus the minimalist”. Studies were also devoted to establish the
idea of ‘migration as an adaptation strategy’ (Teye and Owusu, 2015;
McLeman and Smit, 2006; Warner and Afifi, 2014). In this regard, many
argued that the occurrence of climate change migration depends on the
ability of any affected community or individual to adjust and cope up
with vulnerabilities (Yaro et al., 2014; McLeman and Smit, 2006). In a
recent article, Mallick et al. (2021) found that land ownership, social
connectedness, and household economic strength are associated with
non-migration decisions. A plenty of researches also focus on the factors
and drivers of migration or non-migration decisions (Black et al., 2011a;
Kniveton et al., 2008; Carr, 2005; Henry et al., 2004; Massey et al.,
1998).
Drawing on these conceptual debates and gaps in the existing re-
search findings, this paper argues that little is known about the con-
sequences of climate-induced migration, particularly the link between
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2021.100242
Received 31 May 2021; Received in revised form 1 August 2021; Accepted 11 August 2021
2667-0100/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

2. M.M.P. Rana and I.N. Ilina Environmental Challenges 5 (2021) 100242
climate change, migration and urban consequences. Despite several re-
searches have been examined the societal consequences of climate-
induced migration (Mallick and Vogt, 2014), less attention has been
paid to the urban consequences as a result of internal migration to the
cities of developing countries, such as Bangladesh.
The paper is broadly framed within the climate change migration
and urbanization literature in the context of Bangladesh. Specific studies
were selected based on their relevance to climate-induced migration and
challenges of urbanization of rural poverty. However, the review aims to
demonstrate the factors and trends of rural-urban migration, and how
do this displacement create problematics to the cities of Bangladesh.
The paper is structured into four sections. Section two presents the con-
ceptual framework and signifies the argument of the paper. Based on
existing empirical evidence, section three shows the recent trends of ru-
ral to urban migration in Bangladesh and discusses its impacts on the
cities. Section four provides a critical discussion on the findings and
recommends some policy implications and future research directions.
2. Conceptual framework
2.1. Climate change and climate migrants
It is widely accepted that environmental change for natural and an-
thropological causes, particularly in the case of climate change, can in-
fluence human mobility patterns and behaviour (Moniruzzaman et al.,
2018; Gemenne, 2011; Lonergan, 1998; Chopra and Gulati, 1997). In
the past several decades, researchers from various fields have paid sig-
nificant attention to the linkages and implications of climate change and
human mobility or migration. Arguably, the pioneers in migration re-
search consider environmental change is one of the significant drivers
of human mobility, though ‘environment’ disappears for a while with
the maturity of the field. But the topic such as environment-induced
migration came back on the agenda in the 1980s when environmental
change became a global concern (Baldwin et al., 2014). Etienne Piguet
describes this type of absence and presence of the topic ‘environment
and migration’ as a ‘strange disappearance and sudden reappearance’
(Piguet, 2013).
However, debate around defining the climate migrants/refugees
was also noticeable in the literature (Bettini, 2013; Lister, 2014;
Farbotko, 2010; Biermann and Boas, 2008a; Biermann and
Boas, 2008b; Hulme, 2008; Bates, 2002; Flintan, 2001). For in-
stance, Moniruzzaman et al. (2018) argue that the climate migrants
are supposed to be more vulnerable than the UN-defined refugees,
though they are not included in the UN Refugee Convention. Similarly,
Black (2001) emphasizes on the term ‘environmental refugees’ in
comparison to the conventional UN-accepted definitions of refugees,
such as ‘internally-displaced persons’ or displaced by development
projects. Following the ideas of Lester Brown, Jacobson (1988)
first classified environmental refugees into three sub-categories: (i)
temporary displacement due to temporary environmental stress; (ii)
permanent displacement due to permanent environmental change;
and (iii) temporary or permanent displacement due to progressive
degradation of the resource base. Subsequently, many popularise
this term by exemplifying the human movement or displacement
for environmental change, such as ‘desertification-induced displace-
ment’ (Jacobson, 1988), ‘Black Triangle’ of Czech Republic, Poland
and South-East Germany (Ramlogan, 1996), ‘waves of environmental
refugees’ (Homer-Dixon, 1991), and ‘environmental exodus’ (Myers and
Kent, 1995).
In addition, there are studies that critically analyse the idea of ‘cli-
mate migrants’ as a threat to international security. In this regard, Bet-
tini (Bettini, 2014) provides an important typology of debates around
climate-induced migration categorising the maximalist and minimal-
ist point of views. To the maximalists, it is very alarming that the
massive number of climate migrants may lead to armed conflicts.
But the minimalists often reject this deterministic view through the
idea of ‘migration as adaptation’ and ‘human security’ (Bettini, 2014;
Hartmann, 2010; Lonergan, 1998). For example, Lonergan (1998)
claims that the definition of environmental refugees is ambiguous
and inconsistent while researches in this aspect are unable to answer
why people continue to move to the highly polluted Mexico City and
Chongqing in China.
2.2. Climate-induced migration and urban consequences
Recent studies have conceptualized migration as an adaptive
strategy to climate change (Bettini, 2014; McLeman, 2009a,2009b;
McLeman and Smit, 2006), and conceived as a formal policy interven-
tion that reduces negative impacts and offers benefits (Eriksen et al.,
2015). International Organization for Migration was a key role player
to introduce the concept of ‘migration as adaptation’, that was subse-
quently taken up by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) and the Global Compact for Migration (Vinke et al., 2020). Indi-
vidual researchers also accept the concept to explore the context, causes
and impacts of climate-induced migration. For example, based on a case
of 1930s migration patterns for crop failures due to drought and flooding
in the rural Eastern Oklahoma, McLeman and Smit (2006) investigated
human migration as a possible adaptive response to risks associated with
climate change. Almost similarly, Cattaneoand Peri (2016) found that
higher temperatures in middle-income economies increased migration
rates to urban areas and to other countries, while it reduces in the case of
poor countries. Recently, Khatun et al. (2021) found that the char inhab-
itants in the Padma, Jamuna and Meghna floodplains in Bangladesh pe-
riodically migrate as an adaptation strategy to the close areas to reduce
risks and uncertainties for the threat of erosion. Besides socio-economic
condition, education level and livelihood activity, Henry et al. (2004)
find a link between climate (rainfall) change and short-distance migra-
tion in Burkina Faso.
However, the idea of ‘migration as an adaptation strategy’ became
questionable while all of the climate migrants could not find same
destinations with liveable environment and services for maladaptation
(Warner and Afifi, 2014). Consequently, arguing with the concept of
‘migration as adaptation’, Vinke et al. (2020) state that “migration does
not necessarily lead to increased adaptive capacities for households in
all contexts but can also have detrimental consequences, leading to in-
creased impoverishment and deepened vulnerabilities”. For instance, as
Jacobson et al. (2019) found in the context of Southeast Asia, there was
no improvement in average levels of economic and food security after
migrating to a new destination. Rather, the rural-urban migration of-
ten pushes the migrants deeper into poverty (McNamara et al., 2016;
Mallick, 2014; Poncelet et al., 2010). Demonstrating a case of Bhola
Slum in Dhaka, McNamara et al. (2016) analyse how one set of risks
as rural migrants are often replaced by another in the precarious ur-
ban settings that lack the basic human needs. This is why, Eriksen et al.
(2015) call for reframing the idea of adaptation as a sociopolitical pro-
cess that struggles over authority, knowledges and subjectivities with
an aim to see the potential of migration as transformational adaptation.
Gemenne and Blocher (2017) also argue that the potential impacts of
migration should be studied from three vantage points, which are: the
migrants themselves, the community of origin, and the community of
destination.
Various studies also capture the dynamics of factors, purposes and
consequences of migration, and decision-making process (Vinke, 2019;
Mallick and Vogt, 2013; Dessai and Wilbe, 2011; Kniveton et al., 2008;
Henry et al., 2004). For instance, a study by Vinke (2019) provides a
conceptual schema of climate migration outcomes classifying migra-
tion as: (i) Adaptive migration, (ii) Maladaptive migration and (iii) Sur-
vival migration. Previously, Renaud et al. (2011) develop a ‘decision
framework’ based on the environmental causes of migration and classify
migrants into three categories: (i) Environmental Emergency Migrant
(EEM), who have to leave their homes for a disastrous event such as cy-
clone, floods, tsunami and earthquake; (ii) Environmentally Forced Mi-
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3. M.M.P. Rana and I.N. Ilina Environmental Challenges 5 (2021) 100242
grants (EFM), who have to leave their home to avoid a certain environ-
mental hazard such as soil erosion; and (iii) Environmentally Motivated
Migrants (EMM), who may leave their homes anticipating a deteriorat-
ing environmental condition, such as land degradation (Schwartz and
Notoni, 1994). Furthermore, Carr (2005) calls attention to the role of
environment in decision making process of migration using a framework
of interrelationships among environment, economy and society. Black
et al. (2011a), Black et al. (2011b) compare between the migration sce-
narios for slow-onset environmental changes in Ghana and rapid-onset
environmental changes in Bangladesh.
Likewise, there are studies that also consider the environmental and
socioeconomic consequences of migration (Tacoli, 2009; Afsar, 2003;
Bates, 2002; Mallick and Vogt, 2013). Mallick and Vogt (2013) in-
vestigate the societal consequences on disaster-induced migration in
Bangladesh and found that vulnerability of individual household de-
pends on income-earning capability. Their findings only present the so-
cietal consequences in the origin of migration rather than the conse-
quences after migrants’ displacement to a new destination, such as a
city.
However, obviously, the existing studies provide a better under-
standing about the purposes and drivers of migration, but pay little at-
tention to the consequences of migration at the community of urban
destinations. A critical question then is how the policy of ‘migration as
an adaptive strategy’ influences urban development planning. Drawing
on the recent trends of rural to urban migration in Bangladesh, this pa-
per is particularly interested to focus on the impacts of migration on
the cities. There are three reasons why the future of urban develop-
ment and planning is very important to deal with climate migration.
Firstly, Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to natural disasters for its ge-
ographical location, geo-morphological conditions, flat and low-lying
landscape, high population density, poverty, illiteracy and lack of proper
environmental governance (Anne-Katrien Denissen 2012) . For exam-
ple, its peculiar location between the Bay of Bengal to the south and the
Himalayas to the north often causes natural disasters, such as floods,
cyclones and storm surges, salinity intrusion, hailstorms, droughts, and
landslides (CDMP II 2013). It is also recognized that the recent climate
change situations influence a lot to the frequent occurrence of natural
disasters in the country (Moniruzzaman et al., 2018). As it appears, how-
ever, the physical, environmental and socioeconomic conditions of the
country are largely responsible for its vulnerability to natural disasters
that certainly stimulate human migration/displacement and threaten
the implementation of sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Secondly, cities are also the centre of economic development. They
are the agglomerations of the riches, economic activities and modern
technological advancement and opportunities (Kleniewski, 2006). Cities
are the ultimate destinations for making livelihoods. This is why, as
in other developing countries, Bangladesh also experiences an over-
whelming trend of urbanization of poverty (Rana, 2019; Burkart et al.,
2008). As it seems, the rural poverty is transforming into urban poverty
(McNamara et al., 2016; Rana, 2011). In addition, the existence of more
climate vulnerable villages may create more burden to the hope of mak-
ing resilient cities.
Thirdly, the urban authorities in Bangladesh are unable to provide
sufficient support (housing and other environmental services) to these
climate migrants, who want to settle in the cities by adapting migration
as their last and best choices. As a result, total number of urban slums are
increasing after every occasion of natural disasters. The size of the urban
informal economy is increasing and going to be apparently unavoidable
producing huge pressure to urban authorities (Rana and Piracha, 2020).
Accordingly, however, there is a gap in climate migration and ur-
banization literature in the context of Bangladesh, which needs further
attention to address the impacts of climate-induced migration to the
environmental, social and economic aspects of urban planning and de-
velopment. Thus, it will not be sufficient only to answer the question of
‘why and how many climate migrants move to the cities’ and ‘how do
they adapt in a new environment’; rather ‘how this process of human
Table 1
Categories of internal migration (per 1000 popu-
lation), 1991–2011.
Destination 1991 2004 2011
Rural Destinations 45.2 33.7 57.2
Rural to rural 34.2 29.9 52.6
Urban to rural 11.0 3.8 4.6
Urban Destinations 561.5 312.0 267.3
Urban to urban 43.6 47.9 44.4
Rural to urban 517.9 264.1 222.9
Source: UNFPA (2016; p. 40).
mobility impacts on (host) cities’ is imperative to answer for making
them sustainable and resilient.
3. Empirical examples
3.1. Climate migrants and rural to urban migration in Bangladesh
The natural disasters in Bangladesh create hundreds of thou-
sands of climate migrants every year (Priovashini and Mallick, 2021;
McDonnell, 2019). The majority of them are triggered by sudden-onset
natural disasters such as cyclones, floods, river erosion and landslides.
Slow-onset disasters like sea-level rise and salinization also create new
displacements. Some projections suggest that more than 35 million peo-
ple in the coastal areas of Bangladesh will be at risk of human migration
by 2050 (IDMC 2021). As many as 19 coastal districts and those along
the major river banks (Padma, Meghna and Jamuna) are among the
highest levels of disaster risk.
As can be seen in Fig. 1, the natural disasters triggered more than
4 million new climate migrants in 2019, particularly for the events of
devastating cyclones Fani and Bulbul. Fig. 1 shows that yearly new dis-
placement rate is 915,083. Notably, IMDC (IDMC 2021) projects that the
average new migration might be up to 1214,715 in near future. How-
ever, Bangladesh experienced the largest number of displacements in
the years of 2009, 2013 and 2019. It is also obvious that the country
has to face quite a big number of disaster-induced new displacements
each year (Fig. 1).
A report by the UNFPA Urbanization and migration in Bangladesh
(2016) identifies the categories and trends of general internal migration
in Bangladesh, though it was hard to find out the specific migration cat-
egory as a result of climate extreme events. Nonetheless, the findings
help us to understand the temporal trends and spatial patterns of ori-
gins and destinations of migrants in Bangladesh. As can be seen in the
Table 1, there are two destinations of the migrants, which are rural and
urban. It is important to note that a large number of migrants move
from rural to urban areas in comparison to other categories of move-
ments (Table 1). For example, more than half of the migrants in 1991
was rural-urban migrants. This proportion decreases sharply in 2004
and 2011; but still, it holds the largest number of migrants. Previous
studies also note that the rural-urban migration accounts for almost two-
thirds of the urban population growth since 1971 (Islam and Azad, 2008;
Afsar, 2003).
In the case of spatial pattern of urban destinations of migration,
the migrants do not equally target all districts of Bangladesh. As the
UNFPA Urbanization and migration in Bangladesh (2016) report sug-
gests, Dhaka and Chattagram districts were the major destinations,
where almost two-third of migrants move to. Dhaka alone captures 42%
of total lifetime in-migrants. The overall district-wise distribution of in-
migrants also indicate that the eastern part of Bangladesh pulls more
migrants than the western part. As the megacity Dhaka and the sec-
ond largest city Chattagram are located in the eastern part, they quite
obviously outnumber the cities in the western part. In addition, all of
the districts do not have same proportion rate of in-migration and out-
migration. For instance, Dhaka has a high rate of net migration, be-
3

4. M.M.P. Rana and I.N. Ilina Environmental Challenges 5 (2021) 100242
Fig. 1. Annual disaster displacements in Bangladesh (2008–2019).
Source: IDMC, 2021 (https://www.internal-displacement.org/countries/bangladesh).
cause out-migration from this district is very low in comparison to in-
migration. The adjacent districts of Dhaka (Munshigang, Gazipur and
Narayanganj) also fall into this category, where in-migration is very
high. On the contrary, there are some districts (Rangpur, Faridpur,
Sherpur, Mymensingh, Chandpur, Barisal, Bhola and Patuakhali) have
sharply higher rates of out-migration than in-migration (UNFPA Urban-
ization and migration in Bangladesh 2016).
However, the evidence suggests that Bangladesh is experiencing a re-
markable number of human displacements for various reasons including
natural disasters, and a large number of them move to the urban des-
tinations. Particularly, the big cities including the capital city Dhaka,
Chattagram, Khulna and Rajshahi are their major targets with the aim
of income-earning opportunities and better livelihoods. Therefore, the
cities in the country are obviously vulnerable to climate-induced migra-
tion. They suffer a lot environmentally, socioeconomically and politi-
cally for climate change or disaster-induced rural to urban migration.
For example, as IDMC (2021) notes the impacts of disaster-induced hu-
man migration destroy people’s normal livelihoods, heightens food in-
security, interrupts children’s education and increases the risk of health
problems, such as water-borne and infectious diseases. The following
section further discusses the social, economic, political and environmen-
tal impacts of migration, particularly focusing on what is happening in
the cities of Bangladesh.
3.2. Migration impacts on cities
The impacts of climate-induced migration on the cities of developing
countries are mostly negative (Khan and Kraemer, 2013; Jahan, 2012;
Lu, 2010; Amin, 2005). It creates huge burdens on urban sustainabil-
ity and governance (Rana and Piracha, 2020; Rana and Piracha, 2018;
Mohit, 2012; Rana, 2011), infrastructural shortage (Khan and Krae-
mer, 2013), and lack in social and environmental services (Chen, 2011;
Li et al., 2006). Based on the existing evidence in the context of
Bangladesh, the migration impacts on cities can be categorised into three
broad categories, which are: (i) the spatial and temporal growths of ur-
ban slums, (ii) impacts on infrastructure and services, and (iii) growth
of informal economy and challenges of urban governance.
3.2.1. Growth of urban slums and urbanization of poverty
Bangladesh was in sixth position in the world according to the size
of slum populations, at 30.4 million (Davis, 2006). A survey entitled
Table 2
Distribution of slums in Bangladesh.
Division Total slums Percentage of slums
Barisal 205 1.47
Chattagram 3305 23.71
Dhaka 6489 46.56
Khulna 1684 12.08
Rajshahi 421 3.02
Rangpur 422 3.03
Sylhet 1412 10.13
Total 13,938 100
Source: BBS, 2015.
‘Census of Slum Areas and Floating Population 2014′ conducted by
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) reported that there were 13,938
slums in Bangladesh (BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics) 2015). In
1997, this amount was only 2991. Table 2 shows the distribution of
slums in the administrative divisions of Bangladesh. Dhaka division has
the largest (46.56%) amount of slum population in comparison to other
divisions. Chattagram division has also a big number of slum communi-
ties, but still half of Dhaka division.
A handful number of studies also focus on the growth of slums in
Dhaka city (Begum, 1999). As they claim, Dhaka city is mostly af-
fected by this uncontrollable process of the urbanization of rural poverty
(Rana, 2011; Dana, 2011; Burkart et al., 2008; McDonnell, 2019).
McDonnell (2019) denotes Dhaka as a city of climate change slums.
Similarly, Akbar et al. (2007) call Dhaka is a ‘city of poverty’. No-
tably, the city already contains one-third of the urban populations of
Bangladesh (Sohag, 2013). Dana (2011) notes that Dhaka is one of the
fastest growing megacities in the world with an estimated 300,000–
400,000 new migrants arriving each year. A survey by CUS, NIPORT
and MEASURE Evaluation 2006 reported that about 37% of the urban
population of Dhaka lives in the slums. The census on ‘Slum Areas and
Floating Population 2014′ also confirms that there are 13,934 urban
slums in Bangladesh and 24.39% of them are located in Dhaka city
(BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics) 2015). The slums of the city oc-
cupy only 5.1% of the city’s total land, though the population size is
very large. For instance, the gross population density of Dhaka is less
than 121 persons/acre, but the population density in the slums is 891
persons/acre which is almost seven times higher than the city average
(Mohit, 2012).
4

5. M.M.P. Rana and I.N. Ilina Environmental Challenges 5 (2021) 100242
Table 3
Growth of slums in Dhaka.
Year No. of slums and squatters Population size Percentage of total urban population
1974 NA 275,000 13
1991 2156 718,143 10
1996 3007 1.5 million 20
2005 4966 3.4 million 37.40
Source: CUS (1976; 1993; 1996), BBS 2015; p. 12).
As can be seen in Table 3, the slum population of Dhaka city
was 275,000 in 1974, which was 13% of the total urban population
(CUS (Centre for Urban Studies) 1976). Another survey by CUS, in 1991,
reported that the slum population was 718,143 who were living in 2156
slums in the city (CUS (Centre for Urban Studies) 1993). In 1996, a sur-
vey by CUS and ADB (Asian Development Bank) found that the size
of the slum population had reached 1.5 million (20% of the total pop-
ulation) who lived in 3007 slums in the city (CUS (Centre for Urban
Studies) 1996). A survey of the CUS, NIPORT and MEASURE Evaluation
2006 also reported that there were 4966 slums in the Dhaka Metropoli-
tan Area (DMA) with total populations of 3.4 million. This shows a 70%
increase in the number of clusters and more than a doubling of the slum
populations between 1996 and 2005 (BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statis-
tics) 2015). The Census of Slum Areas and Floating Population 2014
(BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics) 2015) also found that there were
3399 slums in two city corporations of Dhaka, where a total of 643,735
people was living. It was also projected by the World Bank (World Bank
2007) that the slum populations in Dhaka would reach 8 million over
the next decade. The distribution of slums remained similar over the last
three decades, and most of the slum growth occurred in the periphery
of the city (Mohit, 2012).
3.2.2. Impacts on urban infrastructure and services
The rapid influx of migrants affects the demands of urban infras-
tructure and services. This is because, slums emerge unplanned in the
backyards of high skyscrapers, near the rail-lines, above water-logged
floodplains, environmentally precarious areas, and on the fringes of con-
struction sites (McDonnell, 2019). Studies found that the slum popu-
lations of Dhaka have limited access to health and education facilities
(Pryer, 2003; Mookherji, 2002; Kabir et al., 2000; Paul-Majumder et al.,
1996). A study by the World Bank (World Bank 2007) reported that 52%
of the male migrant workers (aged 15 and above) are literate, while
this rate is only 33% for female in Dhaka. Previously, another study by
Hossain (2001) also found that 50% of the young migrants have attained
secondary/higher-secondary education, albeit only 12% of them had an
opportunity to pursue at graduation level. In Dhaka, less than 54% of
households have access to health facilities, and for the poor this figure
would be substantially lower (World Bank 2007).
In addition to these social services, access to other basic infrastruc-
ture is very limited in the slums. Studies report that the slum dwellers
in the cities are deprived of access to satisfactory environmental ser-
vices, such as housing, safe water, sanitation facilities etc (Rana and
Piracha, 2020; Dana, 2011; Rana, 2011; Uddin and Baten, 2011;
Islam and Rahman, 2002; Islam, 2002). Khan and Kraemer (2013) found
that rural-urban migrants stay in poor housing which are made of poor-
quality materials. The quality of water was also found very poor and the
supply remains highly irregular and inadequate (Hossain, 2006). How-
ever, the World Bank (2007) found that 70% of households of slums
of Dhaka stay under the poverty line (income less than $US 2.50 per
day) and do not have access to piped water. Private water vending sys-
tem in several slums of Dhaka city was also noticeable (Akbar et al.,
2007) though the poor had to pay several times higher than the official
price of legal water (BD Taka 4.33 per 1000 l) (World Bank 2007). How-
ever, Table 4 presents a summary of water sources of the urban poor in
Dhaka city based on different case studies conducted between 1975 and
2002. Despite the dissimilarities in the categories of water sources, the
percentage of water users shows an obvious increase of tap-users from
1% in 1975 to approximately 40% in 2002. This certainly indicates im-
provement of water service provision for the urban poor over that time
(Akbar et al., 2007); even though majority of them still depend on infor-
mal water supply and other sources, including dug-wells, hand tube-well
(pump), ponds, lakes and rivers (Rana and Piracha, 2018).
A small proportion of the urban poor (20%) have access to sanitary
latrines and the majority of them still use a variety of non-hygienic la-
trines (Hossain, 2006; Uddin and Jones, 2000). A CUS (Centre for Urban
Studies) (1993) study found that 67% of the urban poor in Dhaka use
electricity and another 33% still do not have access to electricity. The
study also found that 72% of the urban poor use traditional fuel for cook-
ing and only 22% have access to gas facilities (CUS (Centre for Urban
Studies) 1996). More than 60% of the poor just dump their garbage on
the road or in open places because no refuse collection system is present
in the community (Ahsan and Ahmad, 1996).
3.2.3. Growth of informal economy and challenges of urban governance
Growth of (illegal)informal economy, and providing access to
social and environmental services are the most challenging tasks
to the urban authorities in Bangladesh. There are plenty of stud-
ies focus on the growth of poverty, vulnerability and urban infor-
mality (Hossain, 2011,2010,2007), informal economy and the barri-
ers/challenges of urban governance for the overwhelming increase of
informal communities (slums) in the cities of Bangladesh (Rana and
Piracha, 2018; Rahman, 2013; Hossain, 2012).
To explore the water supply system in an informal community of
Dhaka, Hossain (2011) found that the public utility service lacks regu-
latory guidelines for decision-making by any statutory institutions, and
are politically rationalised on the location and individual interests of
actors in the system. For Hossain (2011), urban informality is a pur-
posive game of the opportunists who play their game displaying a dis-
torted reality on the front screen in the name of public interest, for their
back-screen political and economic benefits in a fragile situation of state
institutions. To evaluate the performance of the water supply system in
providing potable water to the urban poor in Dhaka, Akbar et al. (2007)
also claim that social, political and institutional factors are important in
the context of Bangladesh. Similarly, Shuaib and Rana (2020) note that
the performance of water supply to the urban poor in Rajshahi city is
location specific while all of the slums do not have equal access to all
dimensions of supply system. In addition to cost barriers, Titumir and
Hossain (2004) identified some other barriers, such as ‘decisions made
at the centre’, anxiety in approaching the authorities and poor access to
information to access to environmental services.
Besides describing and assessing the problems of slum communities,
several studies also recommend solutions. For example, in his seminal
article on informal housing in Dhaka, Choguill (1988) recommends an
inter-sectoral approach to development and reducing and re-directing
migration flow from Dhaka to elsewhere in the country as part of the
solution to housing scarcity. Rahman (2005, 2002, 2001) highlights the
issue of slum eviction in relation to human rights and the constraints and
prospects of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) involvement in
solving informal housing problems. He suggests that the government of
Bangladesh should accept the human rights of the poor and in situ slum
development through NGO involvement and providing security of land
tenure. Similarly, Habib (2009) explores the role of government and
5

6. M.M.P. Rana and I.N. Ilina Environmental Challenges 5 (2021) 100242
Table 4
Water sources for the urban poor in Dhaka.
Reference Year Study coverage Water source %
Qadir (1975) 1975 Squatter settlements of Dhaka city Tap 1
Hand pump 63
Dug well 2
Pond 35
Centre for Urban Studies (CUS) (1983) 1983 Informal settlements of Dhaka city Tap and hand pump 37
Dug well and pond 15
Centre for Urban Studies (CUS) 1988 Informal settlements of Dhaka city Tap 50
Hand pump 14.5
Islam, Rahman and Huq (1997) 1995 Overall urban poor of Dhaka city Tap 55
Hand pump 43.5
Pond/canal/river 0.2
Others 1.3
BBS (1999) 1997 Slums and squatter settlements of Dhaka Tap 31.52
Hand pump 38.52
Dug well 4.27
Others 25.96
Hanchett, Akhter and Khan (2003) 2001 Slums and squatter settlements of Dhaka and Chittagong Tap 44.35
Hand pump 43.5
Unsafe sources 12.15
World Bank, Proshika and SRS (2002) 2002 Urban service delivery to the poor in Dhaka Tap 39
Hand pump 46
Others 15
Source: Akbar et al. (2007; p. 25), World Bank, Proshika and SRS (2002).
NGOs in slum development. Begum and Moinuddin (2010) underline
the issue of social exclusion and investigate its relation with informal
housing in Dhaka. Paul (2006) investigates a case of slum eviction in
Dhaka and examines how the fear of eviction impacts on the lives of the
informal urban poor.
Hossain (2012) assesses the potential of the partnership approach
in the development of sanitation infrastructure for the urban poor
in Bangladesh. Rana and Piracha (2018) address the complexities of
community-based water supply system in a slum of Dhaka city, and
hope that a proper community management system may still provide
a success. In another paper, Rana and Piracha (2020) highlight the lo-
cal sociopolitical and bureaucratic complexities in participatory water
governance. In addition, they found that disproportionate representa-
tions of actors in participation and lacks in decentralization impede suc-
cessful operation of community-based water supply for the urban poor
(Rana and Piracha, 2020).
However, this section provides significant evidence of undesirable
impacts of rural to urban migration in Bangladesh. The existing liter-
ature clearly presents the sufferings of the migrants in the cities, par-
ticularly for the scarcity of housing, water supply and sanitation. Most
importantly, climate-induced rural to urban migration has appeared as
an external burden to the urban authorities, and are creating huge chal-
lenges to good governance.
4. Discussion and conclusion
The climate migration literature is somewhat stagnated in theo-
rising the concept of ‘migration as adaptation’ (Khatun et al., 2021;
Black et al., 2011) and investigating the causes, drivers, factors and
dynamics of decision-making in relation to migration or displacements
(Mallick et al., 2021; Priovashini and Mallick, 2021; Black et al., 2013).
Surprisingly, very little is found in the existing climate migration liter-
ature in the context of Bangladesh that examines the impacts of mi-
gration on cities. But, the empirical examples of rural to urban mi-
gration and its impacts on the cities show how precariously the cli-
mate migrants are staying in the cities and impeding implementation
of good governance. This paper, thus, provides a valuable contribution
to our understanding about the relationship between climate-induced
migration and urban consequences. The review of evidence suggests
that migration to the cities not only create an opportunity of tempo-
rary/alternative solutions for resettlements and livelihoods but also cre-
ate tremendous challenges to the urban policies to adapt this exter-
nality (Vinke et al., 2020; McDonnell, 2019; McNamara et al., 2016;
Tacoli, 2009; Myers and Kent, 1995). In a similar vein of many devel-
oping countries, the challenges for Bangladesh include overwhelming
urbanization of poverty (in the big cities), scarcity of social and environ-
mental services, and production of informal economy and its impacts on
implementing good governance (Bakker and Kooy, 2011; Bayat, 2010;
Gilbert, 2007; AlSayyed, 2004; Amis, 2004; McGranahan and Satterth-
waite, 2000; Asthana, 1995). As it appears, the consequences of rural
to urban migration are completely unexpected while the authorities are
not prepared for and even deny the existence of migrants in the cities.
Notably, the government of Bangladesh has initiated short-term,
mid-term and long-term development planning strategies, which include
Five-Year Plans, Vision 2041, Second Perspective Plan, and Bangladesh
Delta Plan 2100 along with the UN Agenda 2030 for achieving sus-
tainable development goals (SDGs) (C Paul, 2019). Unfortunately, these
plans mainly focus on thematic/sectoral and hotspot specific strategies,
policies and programmes ignoring the regional imbalance and dispar-
ities in development and resource distribution (Haque, 2005), popula-
tion size (Nahar et al., 2019), occurrence of natural disasters, and pro-
duction of climate/environmental migrants (UNFPA Urbanization and
migration in Bangladesh 2016). But, as this review indicates, there are
regional imbalances in Bangladesh in terms of increasing trend of cli-
mate migrants, urbanization of poverty and huge sufferings of the ur-
ban poor. It thus argues that Bangladesh needs a systematic transforma-
tive territorial/spatial planning approach to identify the weaknesses and
strengths of particular regions at divisional (macro), district (meso) and
upazilla (micro) levels in the same line of many developing countries
(Fedorov, 2019; Praneviciene et al., 2017; Richardson and Townroe,
1986).
One limitation of this review was to provide the exact number of
climate migrants or environmental refugees in Bangladesh who are mi-
grating to the cities. To our knowledge, there is no document in rela-
tion to environmental or climate-induced migration in Bangladesh that
records the exacts number of migrants of different categories. We thus
accept the weaknesses of migration database while it was not possible
to provide cause-specific accounts of migrants and their sufferings in the
cities. However, the review serves as a baseline study to argue and assess
the importance of the impacts of migration to the urban destinations,
particularly focusing on the urban landscape planning accepting the ex-
istence of the informal environmental migrants with the mainstream ur-
6

7. M.M.P. Rana and I.N. Ilina Environmental Challenges 5 (2021) 100242
ban dwellers. In addition, it suggests some policy implications and future
research directions on the climate-induced migration impacts, which are
described below:
Firstly, addressing the climate change impacts on migration is
inevitable to understand the causes, drivers and dynamics of mi-
gration/displacements. For example, spatial and temporal databases
regarding the permanent migration, temporary displacements, and
immobility outcomes following a disaster-event are a primary re-
quirement for better understanding of the categories of migration
(Vinke, 2019; Renaud et al., 2011) and urban policy strategies (Black et
al., 2013).
Secondly, an important topic of migration research might be refram-
ing the relocation strategies for environmental refugees among the cities
and between regions. As it is recognized that a big share of climate mi-
grants temporarily or permanently moves from their origins to the cities
for economically motivated reasons (Priovashini and Mallick, 2021), a
futuristic plan is thus inevitable to relocate them in the suitable places,
such as a nearest place of the origin or to the less migration-affected sec-
ondary/small cities. As Choguill (1988) suggested, the migrants should
be discouraged to go to the migration-saturated cities, such as Dhaka
and Chattagram. Therefore, urban policies in Bangladesh will require
more focus on the secondary cities to balance or equally share the
migration-induced vulnerabilities. And, urban policies should not con-
sider the challenges of these vulnerable communities only at individual
and neighbourhood levels, but a holistic planning approach is also re-
quired to consider various challenges at the regional and national lev-
els. Accordingly, it thus requires a multi-scalar framework for analysing
the climate-induced migration problems and providing solutions
as well.
To ensure human-rights for the climate migrants, developing low-
income housing programmes in the cities would be a necessity. Many
developing countries including Bangladesh do not have any policies
in this regard (McNamara et al., 2016). This might the third area
of research interest for designing and planning urban housing land-
scapes ensuring sufficient social and environmental services for the low-
income urban dwellers, who are mostly maladaptive climate migrants
(Vinke, 2019). In this regard, application of the idea of ‘entitlement
approach’ (Sen, 1981) might be helpful to explain why the climate
migrants are often sociopolitically differentiated and neglected in the
cities.
Fourthly, adequate institutional and legal framework for land devel-
opment regulation and reducing the illegal/informal occupation of ur-
ban land is a big challenge to the urban stakeholders. Since the climate
migrants do not have any legal rights on their occupied land (Khan and
Kraemer, 2013), a complete transformative approach in land manage-
ment might be helpful to deal with this problem. This also demands
more research in the line of transformative approach of land manage-
ment for the urban poor arguing with the existing adaptive or previous
top-down approach in decision-making.
Finally, this paper urges for good governance of climate-induced
migration both in the rural and urban ends. It is argued that making
resilient cities will be impossible without sufficient considerations of
the rural resilience. Satterthwaite et al. (2007) claimed that “successful,
well-governed cities greatly reduce climate-related risks for low-income
populations; unsuccessful, badly governed cities do not and may greatly
increase such risks”. Eriksen et al. (2015) also demonstrate that “the
daily adaptation practices among households, communities and nations,
and the power struggles inherent in them, do not occur in a vacuum.
Adaptation at all levels of intervention becomes part and parcel of on-
going efforts to reaffirm or contest authority, claim access to contested
resources and opportunities, leverage identity and meaning (subjectiv-
ities), frame understandings, and assert knowledge about issues of crit-
ical importance for survival”. In addition, studies argue that migration
might be an effective and circuitous path to achieve the goals, if the cor-
rect policies are put in place (McNamara et al., 2016). It thus supports
a requirement of an integrated approach in governance to cope with
climate-induced vulnerabilities at the village origins as well as urban
destinations. ‘Whether climate change/disaster resilient villages have a
relation with the reduction of flows of climate migrants to cities’ might
be an interesting research question in this regard.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
There was no specific funding for this research.
Data availability statement
All data generated or used during the study appears in the submitted
article.
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