Adapting to Climate Change through Migration and Vulnerability of the Khmer Ethnic Group in the Mekong Delta of Viet Nam

Abstract

           This article discusses the relationship between climate change and internal migration. It also discusses the vulnerability of the Khmer ethnic group in Viet Nam. In particular, the article focuses on the Khmer residing in a small village of the Mekong Delta, an area deemed to be one of the world’s climate hotspots. Through a study of the villagers’ everyday lives experiences, the article examines how climate change, as one of the key drivers causing regional migration, directly and indirectly, affects villagers’ out-migration decision-making. The study demonstrates that migration is used as an adaptation strategy to cope with the stresses caused by climate change. Additionally, climate change impacts pose greater challenges to the Khmer, whose ethnic minority status makes them more vulnerable than Viet Nam’s ethnic majority. To cope with climate change impacts, the Khmer have utilized migration as a form of risk management in their decision-making. This article identifies the underlying mechanisms that increase the Khmer’s vulnerability and make it difficult to remain in risk areas. These mechanisms include stigmatization and exclusion, illiteracy, and indebtedness. There are, moreover, reproduction mechanisms to keep the Khmer in a vicious cycle of vulnerability, such as elevated early education dropout rates, harmful migration policies, and loan injections. These mechanisms affect the Khmer’s migration patterns to cope with climate change and impact the Khmer’s ability to successfully adapt to the sending place.