A Study On Migration,Vulnerability And Adaptation Strategy Linkage Of Climate Refugees In The Coastal Areas Of Bangladesh

Globally millions of coastal people are projected to be homeless or displaced due to climate change related natural hazards in recent times and these people are labeled as’climate refugees’.The coastal areas of Bangladesh are not exempt from this situation.These areas are continuously affected by natural disasters which affect the livelihood of coastal people and force them to migrate.In worlds’ most developed regions the linkage between migration,vulnerability and capacity to adapt are linear in nature but in the coastal areas of Bangladesh the linkage between migration,vulnerability and adaptation strategies are often circular rather than linear for climate refugees because most of time they have to move alongside the coastal river valley temporarily.In this new place survival strategies are very limited and untenable.So again the chance of being affected by hazards increases.Thus,the main purpose of my thesis is to explore the linkage between migration,vulnerability and adaptation strategies of different coastal refugee households.As such,first,this research has identified the factors playing important role for taking migration decision of climate refugees;second;this research has assessed the vulnerability index of climate refugee communities and finally,this research has explored the supporting strategies of adaptation and resilience.But before doing that the present study has tried to analyze the discourse of’climate refugee’.Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used in this research to achieve the objectives of the study.Quantitative method has been employed to find out factors influencing migration decision.Besides that,this method has also been used to find out the major components that enhance vulnerabilities of climate refugees and lastly by using this quantitative method this research finds out the supporting strategies of adaptation and their sustainability in coastal areas.By using qualitative data this research tries to find out the insights of climate refugees regarding the vulnerable situation in coastal areas.Multi-stage sampling has been employed for choosing sample from the population.150 households from three different coastal areas have been selected randomly by using lottery method as the sample of this study.For collecting quantitative data a structured self-administrated questionnaire has been constructed.For collecting more precise information regarding actual situations of climate refugee communities,data has been collected purposively from 9 cases using a checklist and analyzed thematically.For exploring the answer to the question of how the concept of’climate refugee’is defined,in this research secondary data has been drawn using content analysis.SPSS program and Microsoft Excel is used for quantitative data analysis.The study reveals that loss of shelter,extreme events,decreasing soil fertility and food shortage,variability in temperature patterns and exhaustion of natural resources are the most important environmental factors that influence refugees’decision to migrate.Low income,increasing price,decreasing purchasing power are the most important economic factors that influence migration decision.No social factors have significant effect on migration decision while safety as a political factor has a moderate influence on refugees’ decision to migrate.The findings of the study show that the sensitivity index of climate refugee community is in its highest level(.76)in Barishal region compared to the sensitivity index of climate refugee community from Khulna(.67)and Chandpur(.57)regions.This means that in Barishal region the climate refugees are more vulnerable regarding infrastructure,food,water,health,sanitation than the refugees from Khulna and Chandpur region.In Barishal region the difference between the adaptive strategy and sensitivity index is in its highest level which indicates that in Barisal region existing adaptation strategies are not adequate and sustainable for reducing the vulnerabilities of climate refugees.As such,it indicated high vulnerability index(.93).Identifying sustainable adaptation practices in the research areas this study also found sustainable and adequate adaptation practices in Chandpur region than Khulna and Barisal region thus this refugee community shows relatively low vulnerability index(.77).In Chandpur region,most of the respondents think their existing strategies are helpful to reduce the existing vulnerabilities of them while in Barishal and Khulna region majority of the respondents think their existing adaptation strategies are not sustainable enough to reduce their vulnerabilities thus in near future they have to migrate again.As such,for climate refugee households in Chandpur the linkage between migration,vulnerability and adaptation strategy is linear but for the other two regions,this linkage is circular.Finally,this research has proposed some implications that might be helpful for policy making and further research regarding’climate refugees’.