Mobile and local adaptation strategies in the context of global instability: A study in Quang Ngai province

Abstract

This paper focuses on migration as an adaptation strategy in a globally unpredictable context while simultaneously presenting a multi-site case study in Quang Ngai province, on the South-Central Coast of Vietnam, as a departure area for long-distance migration, particularly towards Ho Chi Minh City. The double objective of this research was to understand the intricacies of the factors combined in the migration decision: environmental vulnerability and the alternative adaptation practices implemented on-site. Based on a qualitative approach, this research strongly suggests that migration does not occur only, nor always, in response to environmental changes, but also in reaction to changes in the economic context, social dynamics, and land tenure situations. Environmental vulnerability (to droughts, storms, floods, landslides, erosion, and fish deprivation) cannot be understood independently of other forms of vulnerability. Adaptive behaviours are shaped by constraints as well as opportunities emerging from this changing context. Rural-to-urban migration is put into perspective with onsite adaptation practices to environmental pressures combined by households in a broader adaptation strategy in the face of global uncertainty. The success of migration as an adaptation is nuanced based on the diversity of outcomes.