Climate Change and Migration in Bhutan: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Bhutan is the world’s first carbon-negative country, yet it is disproportionately affected by climate change, including rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and glacial retreat. Today, the country is faced with two profound existential threats – climate change and emigration-driven demographic change. This integrative literature review examines the emerging relationship between changes in the environment and a country’s demographic shift, including both internal and international migration. On the one hand, climate hazards are intensifying both in frequency and degree of damage, and on the other hand, migration in Bhutan is driven primarily by economic, professional development, and aspirational reasons. An increasing number of academic and grey literature reveal that climate change acts as a background stressor, gradually driving migration through amplified compounded precarity and influencing the decision to migrate as a potential adaptive strategy for risk diversification in the face of declining agricultural