, Jan. 21 -- Dhaka, the planet's second most populous city, is on track to become the world's largest city by 2050, according to the UN World Urbanization Prospects 2025 report. This dramatic rise is largely due to the millions of rural-to-urban migrants seeking work, safety, and survival in the city. Urban Bangladesh is quite literally built by migrants, yet the state's social safety nets are designed as if the urban poor, predominantly rural-to-urban migrants, do not exist.

When more inclusive social safety nets are imagined, they miss the spatial realities that structure migrants' everyday lives in Bangladesh's cities. More bluntly, Bangladesh's social protection efforts continue to have a rural bias. Research by the Centre for Policy...