Dr. Joyce Chen, Associate Professor, The Ohio State University, Title of Talk: Tracking Climate Migration in Bangladesh
Abstract
With climate change, we are seeing increased weather variability, higher frequency of hazards, and emerging environmental risks such as desertification and saline contamination. Evidence of adaptation through permanent migration has been mixed, but relatively little is known about short-term moves. Temporary migration affords households greater opportunity to adapt in place, but may also exacerbate seasonal fluctuations in destination areas. We utilize a unique high frequency (bi-monthly) survey conducted in Bangladesh and find that temporary migration is responsive to rainfall shocks and flooding; however, we are unable to detect this response using longer term recall data. Thus, when high frequency data collection is not feasible, surveys should seek to elicit information on the timing of migration episodes.