People move, policies don’t: discursive partition against climate-impacted dwellers in urbanizing Bangladesh

Abstract

In Bangladesh, internal climate displacement will continue pushing millions to the urbanizing centres where migrants make homes in informal settlements. These settlements, too, are sites for climate hazards such as heat stress and flooding, affecting climate-displaced and economic migrants alike. The demands of growing migrant populations and long-term informal settlement dwellers converge around rights to secure land and housing, acknowledged in policies at both national and urban scales. Yet, settlements continue to face evictions, revealing a significant mismatch between policy aspirations and concrete urban planning strategies. Based on our ongoing research in the informal settlements of Dhaka, Bangladesh, we point to a structural condition we call discursive partition which continues to exclude climate-impacted dwellers from urban resilience policies despite their formal recognition in national climate policies. Based on evidence of how climate-impacted dwellers themselves lead urban adaptation, we point to three critical revisitations for just climate adaptation plans.