From environmental disaster to migratory disaster: The Omani network of Bangladeshi fishermen - Incite at Columbia University

This chapter deals with a small migratory niche: Bangladeshi fishermen from a small island of the Bay of Bengal who migrate to Oman to work as fishermen.

It however intends to highlight two phenomena which may very well be common in Bangladesh. At first, the migration of people affected by an environmental stress, as it is in the case of these fishermen who are in their vast majority victims of erosion; then, a migration through a personal network which avoid the use of recruitment agencies, but which, Percot argues, does not lessen the cost of departure.

Following an introductory section, she presents the context in Hatiya island. she then analyze the network of departure and the way the visas are processed. In a third section, she examines the conditions of life and work of the fishermen in Oman, stressing in particular on the circumstances leading them, almost inevitably, to end up as irregular workers. A last section stresses on the consequences that this specific migration has on the island and on the migrant families.