Environmental migrants: the last illusion. Ulaan Baator


  • Photographer
    Alessandro Grassani
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Company/Studios
    LUZphoto agency
  • Date of Photograph
    March 2011
  • Technical Info
    NIKON D700 camera

2008 became the point of no return: for the first time in history there are more people living in cities than in rural areas. Over the years, cities are growing even larger due to climate change and to “environmental migrants”, who are destined to become the new humanitarian emergency of the planet in the next few decades. Environmental migrants are people who, escaping from environmental stresses don’t “land” in the richer nations, but look for new ways of livelihood in the urban areas of their home countries, which are already overcrowded and often extremely poor.

Story

2008 became the point of no return: for the first time in history there are more people living in cities than in rural areas. Cities will grow even larger due to climate change and to environmental migrants, who are destined to become the new humanitarian emergency of the planet in the next few decades.

According to a forecast by the United Nations, in 2050 the Earth will have to face the trauma depicted by 200 million “environmental migrants”: people who will not “land” in the richer nations, but will look for new ways of livelihood in the urban areas of their home countries, which are already overcrowded and often extremely poor. 90% of this kind of migration will occur literally in less developed countries, with relocation from rural areas to the more degraded areas of the city known as slums.

The title “the last illusion” refers to the hopes of the environmental migrants who escape from environmental stresses and look for chances of a better life in the city. However, once they get there, because of their lack of resources, education and opportunities, their dream of a favorable future turns into the last of their illusions.

My long-term project “Environmental migrants: the last illusion” includes three chapters: Ulaan Baator – Mongolia, Dhaka – Bangladesh, Nairobi – Kenya. The first two chapters have been shot during 2011. The third chapter is planned to be realized during 2012.

Mongolia is an extremely poor country: 20% of its 3.000.000 population lives on 1.25 dollars a day and 30% suffer from malnutrition. The capital city, Ulaan Baator, has over 1.200.000 citizens. Half of them live in the slum developed around the city known as “Gher District”, from the name of the traditional Mongolian tent which the herdsmen, abandoning the rural areas, bring with them, being the only property they have left.

These shots have been taken in March 2011, during the hard Mongolian winter called dzud, both in the “Gher District” slum and in the Arkhangai province.

In the past years, this nation experienced deep climate and social changes: dzuds have become longer, snowier and thousands of nomadic herdsmen, used to move their gher to follow the abundance of the pastures, had no other choice but to migrate towards the capital, because their animals were dying of cold (temperatures reaching -50°) and the grass was consequently lacking. In 2010, during one of the harshest dzuds, more than 8 million sheep, cows, horses and camels died in the country and 39.000 herdsmen had to migrate towards Ulaan Baator.
The people depicted in these pictures share a common destiny: they are all herdswomen and herdsmen forced to abandon the rural and isolated areas where they used to live. They arrive to the city after a lifetime spent in the pastures, are illiterate and untrained to take on any kind of work, therefore they end up living a life of hardship in the slum of the city which, in the past 20 years, has rapidly developed, without any urban planning, running water or electricity.

Besides the slum, I’ve spent several weeks with the Tsamba’s. They are a family who moved from Bulgan province - north of Mongolia – to the central province of Arkhangai, next to a village called Ulziit. They fled from severe winter conditions, responsible for the death of half the family's once 2.000 strong herd over the past three winters. Although they are now based in a warmer area, the situation is still critical: during my stay they lost 20 sheep over two cold winter days.

In a globalised world, the poorest countries, those who have contributed the least to climate change, are the most vulnerable and affected by this new emerging phenomenon. These countries, due to the lack of funds invested in alternative development policies in their inhabitable areas, leave their people powerless with no alternative than pursuing the “false myth” of a better life in the cities.

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