Household livelihood strategies of the coastal migrant

Rural-urban migration depicts an essential segment of rural-urban interaction. Especially for today's world, where cities continue to overwhelm its rural counterparts in terms of development pace, the exodus of population from the latter to the former thus speaks for the widening difference between these two places. On one hand, growing population movements within a country portrays the increasing dependence of rural over the urban areas, as rapid industrialization (ever-growing income opportunity) pull rural peasants in to the city. In addition, factors such as decline in agricultural job opportunities, reduction in benefits from agricultural works, increase in natural hazards, degradation of natural environment etc. often leave people without a choice and push them towards areas with better opportunities. Rural coastal areas in Bangladesh offer an ideal backdrop for this study, as it produces all the natural and man-made challenges that force out migration. Similarly, Khulna also acts as a perfect host for all the migrants coming in from these areas. These two, in combination, therefore constitute the study area. And as migration takes places, the people, being mostly poor, find themselves in the midst of a hostile environment in the city, quite different from that of their places of origin. Looking at these destitute migrants, the research therefore asks about the factors that make migrants' livelihoods vulnerable in both rural and urban areas. It also investigates about the extent of change that takes place to migrants' livelihood strategies (compared with rural times) and searches for the nature of rural-urban interaction that forms part of the rural poor's livelihoods in the city. This is an exploratory research that aims primarily at studying cases (migrant households in the city) selected on the basis of a set of pre-determined criteria. For data collection, a biographic-ethnographic approach is adopted, while in-depth interviews remain the primary source to collect qualitative data. In addition, a few other participatory research tools (focus group discussion, rapid appraisal tools etc.) have been implemented as required. The DFID sustainable livelihood framework constitutes the primary framework for research. As the selected study area has remained quite unexplored before this research, the outcomes here are very interesting and to some extents fascinating. Although migrants were categorized as voluntary and forced theoretically, very little empirical evidence has been found to call migration from coastal areas as being voluntary. As far as migration motives are concerned, it has been proven very difficult to identify a sole reason behind migration from the coast. Although natural factors have been found responsible for forcing migration; it has been observed that factors other than natural forces actually pose much greater threats to rural poor's livelihoods. In reality, migration motives depend largely on the possession of tangible and permanent assets (mostly land). People with such assets do not seem to move out permanently. Additionally, migrants in the city still seem to be mentally attached to their places of origin since they have relatives back there; in fact, most of them wish to go back if they ever have a chance. However, livelihoods strategies for the migrants did not really change in comparison to rural times as most of them still remain uneducated (although some skills have been acquired). Similar challenges as in rural lives also persist in the city. And probably all these force them to live still as peasants in the city, as their coping strategies have also remained rural. All in all, knowledge acquired through this research could be used to address current vulnerability issues reading potential migrants' livelihoods in rural areas, and of existing migrants' and hence develop policies accordingly to resolve these issues.