Migration in the context of environmental change (Case study of the Mekong Delta)

Abstract

In the context of environmental change in the Mekong Delta, households have different livelihood strategies such as maintaining current livelihoods, changing to new livelihoods and migrating to find jobs. The migration strategy for finding jobs in major cities is a research topic of interest from different fields of study such as geography, sociology, economics, culture, and anthropology, etc. In spite of that, there are many issues that still need to be studied. When discussing migration and the environment, researchers have divided their opinions into two groups. Some of the researchers recognize the environment as the main driver of migration. Meanwhile, the other emphasize the complexity of this process. They consider that migration is a decision driven by different reasons; one of which is the environment. Using a rich source of secondary data from scientific journals and monographs, the author of this article focuses on exploring the questionable relationship between migration and environmental change: Is environmental change a driving force for migration, and is migration a strategy to adapt to environmental change? The findings from this article will serve as a basis for conducting further studies to understand driving forces and migration tendency of household.