Abstract
It is widely suggested that migration is a key mechanism linking climate change to violent conflict, particularly through migration increasing the risks of conflict in urban destinations. Yet climate change also creates new forms of insecurity through distress migration, immobility and vulnerability that are prevalent in urban destination locations. Here we examine the extent and nature of human security in migration destinations and test whether insecurity is affected by length of residence and environmental hazards. The study develops an index measure of human security at the individual level to include environmental and climate-related hazards as well as sources of well-being, fear of crime and violence, and mental health outcomes. It examines the elements of human security that explain the prevalence of insecurity among recent and established migrants in low-income urban neighbourhoods. The study reports on data collected in Chattogram in Bangladesh through a survey of migrants (N = 447) and from qualitative data derived using photo elicitation techniques with cohorts of city planners and migrants. The results show that environmental hazards represent an increasing source of perceived insecurity to migrant populations over time, with longer-term migrants perceiving greater insecurity than more recent arrivals, suggesting lack of upward social mobility in low-income slums. Ill-health, fear of eviction, and harassment and violence are key elements of how insecurity is experienced, and these are exacerbated by environmental hazards such as flooding. The study expands the concept of security to encompass central elements of personal risk and well-being and outlines the implications for climate change.
Highlights
It is widely suggested that migration is a key mechanism linking climate change to violent conflict, through migration increasing the risks of conflict in urban destinations
Petrova (2021) shows that urban migrants displaced from rural areas in Bangladesh are not more likely to be involved in protest and conflict, while Koubi et al (2021) suggest that migrants displaced by weather-related disasters in Kenya engage more in pro-social advocacy and engage in social movements
There is, we argue, a case for expanding the conceptual focus of research on climate change and its human impacts to include holistic experiences of insecurity to include everyday social exclusion and precarity: these are represented in the theories and measurement of human security
Summary
It is widely suggested that migration is a key mechanism linking climate change to violent conflict, through migration increasing the risks of conflict in urban destinations. The study develops an index measure of human security at the individual level to include environmental and climate-related hazards as well as sources of well-being, fear of crime and violence, and mental health outcomes It examines the elements of human security that explain the prevalence of insecurity among recent and established migrants in low-income urban neighbourhoods. This study, describes human security in urban settings of rapidly growing cities as a set of economic, social and environmental dimensions It develops a new Human Security Index at the individual level incorporating these dimensions and examines whether length of residence in destination areas explains the prevalence of insecurity, through phenomena such as housing tenure and exposure to health impacts of water and environmental hazards.
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