Socioeconomic Status Changes of the Host Communities after the Rohingya Refugee Influx in the Southern Coastal Area of Bangladesh

Abstract

The refugee influx from Myanmar, known as Rohingya refugees, is a serious concern for global refugee issues. Bangladesh currently hosts one million Rohingya refugees in the coastal district of Cox’s Bazar. Considering the number of the refugees, in addition to the humanitarian concerns, they are also creating pressure on the local host communities. This study explored the socioeconomic changes of the host communities after the refugee influx. In order to fulfill this study’s objectives, 35 villages near the Rohingya refugee camps from the coastal district of Bangladesh were surveyed. In the villages, 10% of households were surveyed in 2016 and also in 2020, covering 1924 and 2265 households, respectively. A temporal comparison of the host community’s socioeconomic status between 2016 and 2020 was conducted in order to determine the changes after the recent refugee influx. This study found that the local community’s socioeconomic status degraded. The annual income decreased by 24%, which is unusual for a country with over 6% gross domestic product (GDP) growth in recent times. The income decreased from all livelihood options except farming, which could be related to the availability of cheap labor and the high demand for commodities. The villages were clustered using k-means, and 20 villages were found to be affected after the refugee influx with degraded socioeconomic status. The host community’s general perception was initially positive, but later turned negative toward the refugees. This study will be important for the government and donor agencies to develop strategies to properly manage the refugee camps and adjacent host communities.

Land Cover Changes after the Massive Rohingya Refugee Influx in Bangladesh: Neo-Classic Unsupervised Approach

“…The expansion of built-up/disturbed areas was most probably for agriculture field development, owed mostly to the cheap labor that was supplied by Rohingya refuges. This assumption is in line with the finding by Ullah et al (2021) [36]; the income was increased only for farmers and not for other occupations, such as business workers, fishermen, and laborers among local community dwellers, even though the significant wage depression after the influx was observed [37]. It is evident that the wage decreased due to the abundant labor supply by the Rohingya refugees; however, the demand for the agriculture increased because the land for cultivation expanded.…”

Modeling of Forest Ecosystem Degradation Due to Anthropogenic Stress: The Case of Rohingya Influx into the Cox’s Bazar–Teknaf Peninsula of Bangladesh

“…The study area consisted of Teknaf Wildlife Sanctuary, declared in 2010 [55,56] and formerly known as Teknaf Game Reserve (TGR) after the 1983 declaration through the Bangladesh Wildlife Act [55,57]. In addition, the proposed Inani National Park was included [19,58], which has been a reserve forest from 1907 [59,60] and is managed under the jurisdiction of the Bangladesh Forest Department [13].…”

How Does the Rohingya Influx Influence the Residential Satisfaction and Mobility Intentions of the Host Communities in Bangladesh?

“…In the case of resource environmental and competition, for example, shared, participatory community management of the resources may be a more holistic strategy (Martin, 2005). Existing research on the relations between Bangladeshi host communities and Rohingya migrants identifies a potential for greater future social conflict (Jerin & Mozumder, 2019), and highlights the negative socio-economic impact of the influx on host communities' livelihood conditions (Ullah et al, 2021) as well as on wider regional industries like tourism (Ahmad & Naeem, 2020). By systematically employing the residential satisfaction concept and comparing between more affected and less affected communities, the present research explores these livelihood and lifestyle effects in greater detail.…”