Migration as a Pathway to Climate Resilience? Precarities, Adaptive Capacity, and Wellbeing in Denchukha-Thimphu Migration Corridor

Abstract

This article examines migration as a potential pathway to climate resilience in Bhutan focusing on the Denchukha–Thimphu corridor. Environmental stressors such as erratic rainfall, declining crops, and water scarcity threaten rural livelihoods pushing farmers to move to Thimphu, yet migration remains largely absent from national adaptation plans. Using Scoones’ Sustainable Livelihood Framework and a mixed-methods tracer study incorporating surveys, interviews, and rapid ethnography, the research examines how migration emerges as an adaptive strategy, providing income diversification and expanded social networks, but it also produces trade-offs, including labour loss and social isolation. The findings demonstrate that migration redistributes adaptive capacity rather than simply increasing it, highlighting the importance of equitable, context-specific policies that integrate mobility into broader climate adaptation and development strategies.