Beyond environmental determinism? Analysing studies on environmental migration in the Greater Mekong Subregion and the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta Region

Abstract

Current studies often present environmental and climate migration in three ways: in an environmentally deterministic way, as an adaptation strategy or as a ‘wicked’ phenomenon. This bibliometric and thematic analysis analysed 147 studies from January 2015 until August 2020 on environmental migration in the Greater Mekong Subregion and the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta Region (India and Bangladesh) to determine to what extent dominant discourses on environmental migration and mobilities have moved away from environmental determinism. Results of this study suggest that most analysed studies, which clearly framed environmental migration, tend to remain rather environmentally deterministic. Further, the spatial level of analysis in the studies, whether it was local or non-local, did not correspond to different theoretical and conceptual approaches to environmental migration. While 17.0% of the studies presented environmental migration as a form of adaptation, relevant discussions on the concepts of resilience, vulnerability and adaptation were largely lacking. This is problematic as recent global studies on environmental migration are increasingly adopting the adaptation paradigm. Additionally, relatively few studies have adopted more critical or pluralistic approaches to human mobility, climate change and adaptation. Lastly, studies on Bangladesh were more often presenting climate change as a primary driver of migration than studies in other localities within the study region.