The Impact of Climate Change on Climate Migrants in Large Cities: A Case Study of Karachi, Pakistan

The nexus between climate-related migration, urbanisation, and social policy is among the most complex and pressing global issues of the 21st century, especially in the Global South (IDMC, 2021). Climate migration is usually associated with human mobility related to both slow-onset (e.g., droughts and sea level rise) and rapid-onset disasters (e.g., floods), particularly in countries of the Global South, and is estimated to increase to approximately 216 million people by 2050 (Clement et al., 2021). Climate migrants are usually internal migrants who settle in large cities for the purpose of a safe and better life. However, it in turn causes or intensifies forms of urban informality and insecurity (Sandoval, 2019), and they, in big cities, further contribute to climate change impacts (Mearns & Nortonm, 2009). Big cities in
Pakistan are affected by climate migrants; Pakistan is in fact among the top 10 countries most affected by climate change (Eckstein et al., 2021). The country
established a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in 2007 and developed its National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) in 2012. During the massive
2022 floods one-third of Pakistan was under water, and about 8 million people forcibly displaced (Ministry of Planning Development & Special Initiatives,
2022). The city of Karachi in Sindh Province is Pakistan's largest city and one of the most vulnerable cities to climate change effects (Bhutoo, 2020). Many
migrants in Karachi, including climate migrants, lack access to social services such as health and housing (Iqbal et al., 2018) and face urban injustices such
as dispossession (Saleem, 2021). These realities point to the significant societal need to study this topic, which has also thus far received limited scholarly
attention (Hossain et al., 2017; Adamson & Tsourapas, 2020; Ghosh & Orchiston, 2022). And no full-scale academic study of Karachi, Pakistan exists.
Therefore, the aim of this research is to synthesise an interdisciplinary social science and social policy framework that produces novel theoretical and
empirical insights at the conjuncture of climate-related migration, urban studies, and social policy to form the basis of effective protection and preparation
measures for various climate change impacts on climate migrants in the city of Karachi.