This project used quantitative and qualitative methods, namely a cross-sectional survey with self-identified migrants and photo-elicitation interviews with self-identified migrants and city planner in Chattogram (formally Chittagong), Bangladesh. Both methods were employed to investigate self-identified sources of urban precarity and insecurity among migrant populations and undertakes action research with city-scale urban planners and migrants seeking to implement sustainable lives and city infrastructure in Chattogram. The project explored opportunities to integrate the perspectives and lived experiences of migrant urban populations into policy processes through two follow up activities namely a perspective-taking workshop, where several migrants and city planners who participate in the photo elicitation process reflected on their experiences and challenges associated with well-being and security in a fast-growing urban environment; and two policy-oriented workshops (one local level in Chattogram and one national level in Dhaka) exploring legitimate solutions to potentially lead to more effective urban governance.This project seeks to incorporate migrant perspectives and sources of innovation into urban planning to build safer and more sustainable cities. The project represents frontier research in framing new migrant populations as sources of innovation and sustainability, and in using multiple methods to incorporate new migrant population perspectives into sustainable places. The research addresses environmental sustainability by examining the environmental risks to new populations in cities, including exposure to environmental hazards and access to environmental services such as water. Its addresses poverty by examining social exclusion of migrant populations that are often invisible in policy and planning. It addresses conflict and security by conceptualising the human security of migrant populations as their ability to create secure lives, overcome discrimination, and build social cohesion in destination areas. The research design involves examining human security and overcoming exclusion with example groups in a rapidly expanding city in a low-income country; working directly with migrant populations and urban planners to generate new priorities; and learning lessons that can be generalized and applied across the Global South. The planned research involves planners in Chattogram (formally Chittagong) in coastal Bangladesh and its new migrant populations, including some displaced because of environmental hazards, and ethnic minority groups. The research involves multiple methods: surveys of migrants focusing on their well-being, their sources of insecurity, and their potential to build attachment to sustainable places; photo elicitation with both planners and migrants as participants; and deliberative workshops to build empathy between migrants and planners and designing new interventions. The research builds on and seeks new directions for the fields of human security, migration, urban planning, and development studies.

The survey was carried out in May 2018 and respondents were migrants residing in Chattogram (n=463). Survey respondents were purposive sampled to include a span of arrival of six months to ten years. Survey questions were designed to capture indicators of well-being, human security and self-reported perceptions of environmental, socioeconomic and political issues faced by migrant populations in the city. The photo elicitation interviews were conducted during the March/August of 2018 (n=17) and lasted approximately 1.5-2 hours. The purposive sampled participants were self-identified migrants (n=10) and city planners (n=7) residing in Chattogram. The sampling approach was designed to capture a diversity of gender, age, ethnicity, length of residency and occupation types among migrants.