ABSTRACT
Small island states and large delta areas in particular have been in the spotlight in debates about the consequences of climate change, sea level rise and migration. In this chapter, the authors aim to give an overview of recent debates dealing with the interrelations of environmental changes – some of which are an outcome of economic transitions and land-use change in the area – and migration in coastal Bangladesh. They focus on migration decisions at the household level and their different drivers. Two important issues they shed light on are: the relative importance of environmental stressors to migration decisions vis-a-vis socio-economic and other factors; and the influence of household resources or assets on the ability to migrate. The authors discuss the major findings of recent research projects in this field, including their own empirical results that are based on a large-scale household survey conducted in coastal districts in late 2014.
