This book explores the relationship between climate change–induced migration and conflict in Bangladesh – one of the most ecologically fragile countries in the world. It explores why people migrate from their original place of land and how the migration of people with a different background to an ethnically distinctive region due to environmental changes can become a source of conflict and violence between the host peoples and migrants. The volume focuses on the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), which has experienced long-standing ethnopolitical conflict due to the settlement and migration of the Bengali people from the plain land of Bangladesh. This settlement and migration were mainly caused climatic events such as floods, cyclones, sealevel rise, and disasters. It traces the history of the ethnic conflict in the region and presents key findings from the field, as well as the dynamics of everyday politics in the region. This volume also highlights how internally climate-displaced people generate violence and civil strife in the major urban cities through their settlements in slums.
The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of environmental studies, human geography, migration and diaspora studies, public policy, social anthropology, and South Asian studies.
List of illustrations vi
Preface viii
Acknowledgments xii
1 Introduction: contextualizing the study 1
2 The climate change, migration, and conflict relationship: a review 28
3 Climate change, migration, and conflict issues in Bangladesh 57
4 The climate change and migration interplay in Bangladesh 89
5 Mediating factors in the migration process in Bangladesh 111
6 The migration and conflict interplay in Bangladesh 129
7 Conclusion 168
Appendixes 180
Index 183
Biography
Md Rafiqul Islam is a professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dr. Islam has a PhD from Flinders University, Australia, and his thesis was awarded the John Lewis Silver Medal in South Australia. He had previously completed his bachelor’s degree in political science and has a master’s and an MPhil in peace and conflict studies from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has also completed an MA degree in environmental security and peace from the University for Peace, Costa Rica. His primary research interests include climate change, migration, refugees, peace, conflict, and development. Dr. Islam also has a keen interest in global politics, security, and peace issues and has published 40 articles and chapters across several publication based globally.
