4. Environmental Migrants in Bangladesh: A Case Study on Climatic Change Hazards in the Southwestern Coastal Area

Bangladesh has been considered one of the countries most affected by climatic change impacts. Increases in natural hazards, perceived to be due to climate change, have affected the southwestern coastal environments of Bangladesh and people’s livelihoods in this area. Remarkably, the numbers of human deaths due to floods, cyclones, and tidal surges have decreased, primarily because of mitigation strategies such as safe houses. However, the number of homeless people has increased sharply, contributing to internal migration in Bangladesh, including migration between neighboring cities. This chapter discusses the influence of climate-induced hazards on the decision to move, and the circumstances that prompt migrants to take decisions to migrate. Semistructured questionnaires were used to collect data in the Gabura union in the Shyamnagar thana in the Satkhira district, and qualitative analysis and case studies were conducted to further elaborate the outcomes. The results showed that along with anthropogenic causes—such as government policy implementation to protect the Sundarbans (the largest mangrove forest in the world) and changes of paddy cultivation fields into saltwater fish and shrimp farms—natural hazards such as periodic cyclones and tidal surges have damaged the territory of poor workers and/or day laborers, leading them to move to places where employment is more readily available. In this regard, climatic hazards have played a fundamental and influential role with other factors in the process of migration.