Migration in a Changing Climate in India

Extreme weather events like droughts, floods, heatwaves, and cyclones have been increasing and will continue to, under climate change (IPCC, 2022). In human systems, these extreme events lead to an inevitable loss of livelihoods, infrastructure, and habitation forcing people to migrate, either within their country or across borders. Most migration currently takes place within countries and is in response to multiple drivers, of which climate change is one (Hari et al., 2021; Rajan & Bhagat, 2022). Migration is a strategy taken up by individuals and households to diversify livelihoods, meet non-agrarian aspirations, access quality education, and spread risks (Maharjan et al., 2020). Multiple stressors and opportunities at the source, during movement, and at the destination interact and coexist simultaneously, making the link between migration and vulnerability complex (Singh et al., 2016).

Rural migrants entering urban agglomerations typically end up in informal settlements and/or city peripheries, where poor planning, inadequate basic services, and increasing environmental degradation co-exist (Satterthwaite et al., 2020). Further, climate hazards intersect with existing structural vulnerabilities such as socio-economic and political marginalisation, poverty, hierarchical power relations, and lack of livelihood opportunities to mediate people’s abilities to deal with multiple risks (Cundill et al., 2021). Despite existing research on migration, there remain gaps in how migration will continue to manifest in a climate changed world. Nowhere is this gap clearer than in India, an urbanising country with more than 35% of its population migrating internally every year.

Given this reality, this special issue draws on papers presenting in the IIHS-IIMAD ‘Third Annual Conference on Migration: Migration in a changing climate’, which attracted presenters from leading universities across India to discuss research at the interface of internal migration and climate change.

Key topics

● The climate change-migration intersection: How is migration mediated by climate risks and impacts? In what ways do these climatic impacts intersect with underlying vulnerability to shape migration decisions?

● Understanding immobility: How does voluntary or involuntary immobility intersect with climate change and intersect with gender, caste, ethnicity, income etc to shape livelihood decisions?

● Outcomes of migration in changing climate: What are the outcomes of migration and what are the differential experiences faced by migrants at their destination?