Limits to Migration as Adaptation through Loss and Damage

Migration is increasingly recognised in research and policy as an autonomous adaptation strategy that can help climate-affected households to diversify their livelihoods. However, in the absence of supportive policies and legal frameworks, migration in the context of climate change can also result in loss and damage (L&D) for migrants and their families or households, which can undermine the success of migration as adaptation. Yet, L&D experienced through migration are yet to be fully and explicitly elaborated. The overall goal of the project, therefore, is to develop and validate, through empirical research in Bangladesh, a novel conceptual framing of migration-related L&D (MLD). Working with translocal households (consisting of migrants in places of destination and their families in places of origin) in Bangladesh, I will (i) identify context-specific socially differentiated MLD, (ii) examine the links between MLD and trade-offs in wellbeing, equity and sustainability across translocal households and their implications for limits to migration as climate adaptation, and (iii) co-produce contextually relevant solutions for addressing MLD. This novel conceptualisation of MLD underpinned by research evidence will advance scholarship and feed into policy debates on migration and L&D, act as a guide for assessments of limits to migration as adaptation, and support the development of appropriate measures that respond to migration-related economic and non-economic L&D. In Bangladesh, participation in the qualitative and deliberative research and co-produced context-specific responses to MLD will empower affected groups to access L&D funding and to advocate for their meaningful engagement in discussions about addressing L&D.