‘We couldn’t bear the shame of not repaying our debts, so we left’

Migrant workers across South-Asian countries tap into savings, depend on family or borrow from informal moneylenders to cope with the impacts of extreme weather events

Amoolya Rajappa

BENGALURU, Karnataka: “Rains have become our enemy,” shared 36-year-old Lingappa Thimappa, who was forced to migrate to Bengaluru from Gunjur, his ancestral village in Raichur, a district otherwise known for its sweltering heat in Karnataka. Six villages in Raichur recorded the highest temperatures in Karnataka in 2024, reaching a scorching 45.2°C.

Mounting debts, erratic rains and failed crops have forced many like Lingappa to move and look for greener pastures in the recent past. “Migration is our only way to cope,” he shares in one of the case studies compiled in the Voices of Resilience: Stories of internal migrants coping with Climate Change, part of a recent report, by non-profit People’s Courage International and The Institute for Social and Environmental Transition–International (ISET-International).

The report highlights how rising extreme weather events driven by climate change are worsening the vulnerabilities of internal migrant workers across South and Southeast Asia, who have limited access to social schemes and lack political representation in the states they migrate to.

Over a billion people worldwide are migrants, with 75%—about 763 million—moving across domestic borders within their own countries. Asia accounts for over 36% (282 million) of these internal migrants. They represent a significant proportion of Asia’s informal workforce, being employed across occupational sectors such as construction, garments, electronics, and manufacturing.

The report draws on a baseline study conducted earlier this year across five South and Southeast Asian countries—Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, and the Philippines.

A staggering 90% of internal migrants surveyed in the study reported being affected by weather-related events, either at source or their destinations. When extrapolated to the estimated 200 million internal migrants studied across five countries, this translates to 180 million of the most vulnerable persons already being negatively impacted by extreme weather.

“If we go by the projections, the kind of hardships and suffering that we are witnessing is only expected to intensify,” Ameena Kidwai, who led the research, told The Migration Story.

LEAVING HOME TO REPAY LOANS

Economic distress, particularly limited job opportunities, low wages, and livelihood challenges were noted as significant drivers of migration from the source regions. In some countries, the need to repay loans was a key factor, particularly in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, where around 30% of migrants in India and Nepal, and 15% in Bangladesh, migrated to settle debts.

Lingappa’s land in Gunjur, once fertile and nourished by the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers, now produces meagre harvests, even of cotton, which is typically more resilient to erratic rains. As crops failed, moneylenders came knocking. “We couldn’t bear the shame of not repaying our debts, so we left,” he recalled.

However, Lingappa’s experience as a construction labourer in Bengaluru has been fraught with challenges as well. During the 2024 water crisis, migrant workers like him faced prolonged work stoppages as water shortages halted construction. He recollected how there was not enough water to wash up after a day’s labour, with the added expense of purchasing drinking water further straining his family’s already limited finances.

“People who migrate to repay debts often end up spending their savings in destination cities just to cope with extreme weather and health issues,” said Kidwai, Senior Lead, Research at Global Climate Resilience Collective (GCRC) at People’s Courage International (PCI). “In a way, it becomes a vicious cycle they cannot break free from.”

While the primary drivers for migration are better job opportunities and wages, factors like access to healthcare reveal the poor state of health infrastructure in rural areas across South and Southeast Asia. In India, the preference for better healthcare was among the top three reasons for choosing a destination, outranking other factors such as proximity to home and joining family members.

WAGE LOSSES AMID RISING HEAT

The Coping with Climate report identifies heat as the most significant weather event impacting internal migrants in destination areas, as supported by both survey data and focus group insights.

In the summer of 2024, South and Southeast Asia endured record-breaking heat waves, marking the third consecutive year of extreme temperatures. In New Delhi, temperatures soared to 49℃, with nearly 200 reported heat-related deaths.

“We face problems in doing work due to heat. We have to lift 25-50 kg of weight. We have to lift it. If we don’t, then they will ask us to leave the job. We also fall sick due to that,” Vijay, a construction worker in Delhi, has said in the report.

In India, migrants at destination locations identified health issues (59%), food insecurity (45%), and house damage (33%) as the top three household related impacts of weather events.

“Seventy percent of the workers employed in the construction sector are involved in outdoor activities and are hence directly impacted by pollution and extreme weather events, which further lead to wage loss and wage cuts,” shares Siji Chacko, part of the Global Climate Resilience Collective (GCRC) under PCI, who contributed to the report.

Wage loss (39% to 57%) and wage cuts (40% to 56%) were the most common occupation-related challenges faced by migrants at destination across all five countries surveyed.

COPING STRATEGIES

Shukuruddin Mondal, 53, migrated from West Bengal’s Karimpur village to Bengaluru due to extreme weather events such as heat and floods. 15 years later, he works as a ragpicker struggling with debt and harsh living conditions.

“During the summer, it’s hot inside the houses. We don’t have electricity here. How will we sleep at night? Some people sleep outside at night. Some try to sleep, while others just end up sitting. That’s how people try to survive,” he explained.

As climate change intensifies, the report calls for new policies that relieve migrants from having to adapt on their own to a rapidly changing risk landscape.

“Solutions must be embedded within policy and government frameworks designed to address migrant needs. The well-intentioned efforts from bureaucracy would have to be backed by robust implementation mechanisms, support and coordination by different stakeholders,” says Chacko.

Access to social protection could play a crucial role in reducing vulnerability to extreme weather events by serving as a key response mechanism, minimizing negative coping strategies, and supporting mitigation and adaptation efforts.

However, over half of those surveyed at destination locations reported not receiving any external assistance. In India and Nepal, government emergency relief, already limited at the source, was even lower at destinations (17% and 22% at source, compared to 8% and 3% at destination). The Philippines, nonetheless, stood out as an outlier with more accessible emergency relief, with 46% receiving aid at destination, compared to 75% at source.

In the absence of significant social security schemes, many migrant workers across South-Asian countries either tap into savings, or depend on family, friends and informal moneylenders to deal with the impacts of extreme weather events.

The report highlights a concerning trend of how more migrants at destination locations reported having no coping mechanisms compared to those at source locations. In the Philippines, nearly a quarter of respondents lacked such strategies, while over 20% in Indonesia faced similar challenges.

While some coping mechanisms may have negative consequences, having none at all underscores the vulnerability of these migrants, who are left with little or no options to mitigate the long-term impacts of extreme weather or other crises.

“What can we do? What we plan never happens. We work for a week and then go home,” shared Manoj from Noida, describing the struggle of dealing with wage loss during extreme heat.

Among one of its key recommendations, the report proposes designing social protection and assistance programs that target the negative impacts of extreme weather events on livelihoods and households while strengthening coping mechanisms for migrants. It also advocates for policies to address needs beyond immediate post-event relief.

“While immediate relief measures are helpful, migrant workers employed under precarious conditions with little or no savings would benefit from anticipatory assistance such as access to universal health schemes, introduction and expansion of portability of entitlements, cash transfers before imminent events, among others,” said Kidwai. “These measures can both minimize impacts from extreme weather events and build long-term resilience”.

URGENT NEED FOR SOCIAL PROTECTION

A global estimate suggests that climate change could create over 200 million additional internal migrants by 2050. Occupation or income-related impacts from weather events are already widespread across source and destination locations in the surveyed countries, and as extreme weather events become more frequent and intense, these challenges are expected to further escalate.

Yet, social protection schemes in these countries remain significantly underfunded as compared to developed countries. According to ILO estimates, public spending would need to increase by 70% to 430% to provide universal coverage for basic benefits such as health care and income security for vulnerable groups. However, even such investments would fall short of addressing the added burdens posed by climate risks, highlighting the urgent need for climate-focused social protection measures.

The larger data gathered across five countries, while highlighting both commonalities and differences, also emphasizes the importance of understanding the contextual nuances within South and Southeast Asia. As the report shows, addressing the challenges faced by migrant workers in these diverse socio-cultural and occupational set-ups requires solutions that are tailored to their unique needs and circumstances.

The report and labour rights campaigners both emphasise that by prioritizing participatory and inclusive planning, governments across the Global South can create environments that better support these workers, allowing them to not only survive but thrive. The economic benefits of such efforts will far outweigh the costs, underscoring the importance of investing in solutions that empower migrant workers and contribute to broader societal progress, they say.

All charts sourced from: Kidwai, A.,Venkateswaran K., Ashraf, A., Samuel, E.,MacClune, K., Roychowdhury, P.,Norton, R.,Chacko, S., Behani, V. (2024). Coping with Climate: How extreme weather is already impacting internal migrants. People’s Courage International and ISET.

Amoolya Rajappa is a Bengaluru-based independent journalist and reports on labour, internal migration, climate change and displacement in India.

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Amoolya Rajappa

Amoolya Rajappa is a Bengaluru-based independent journalist and reports on labour, internal migration, climate change and displacement in India.

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