Dhaka: a city of development and deprivation for environmentally induced migrants

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is a city defined by inequality. It is not one city, but many. There is a city of high-rise buildings, shopping malls, and restaurants. There is also the city where people live on the streets and in informal settlements or slums (Bastee). This highly visible inequality, indelible in the physical and social geography, is largely the result of the dynamic push–pull factors that shape migration. This migration, together with the rapid pace of economic growth and environmental degradation, has pushed the boundaries of sustainability and liveability, creating the conditions of perceived and actual (in)security in the city. This chapter provides a context for people’s everyday insecurities by discussing how the environmentally induced migrant’s lives are shaped by unplanned urbanization. The objective of this chapter is to lay out the conditions of everyday and long-term (in) security experienced by these migrants in Dhaka city. This chapter analyses how Dhaka City is attracting rural environmental migrants due to the employment opportunities created by Bangladesh’s role in the global economy as a source of cheap labour in the textile and construction industries. These new urban dwellers seek out shelter in abandoned places of the capital and urban planners have yet to exploit and enclose. The chapter consists of four main sections: an historical perspective; outlining the planning trajectories of Dhaka under different colonial and post-colonial periods; the construction of Dhaka as a place of hope and frustration; and critical analysis of the growth of informal settlements. The chapter concludes by explaining that the uneven geography of urban growth in Dhaka is one where development and (in) security co-evolve and indeed reflect the inequalities embedded in development.