Working Hard for the Money- Bangladesh Faces
Challenges of Large-Scale Labor Migration
By Nazli Kibria , Boston University
http://www.migrationinformation.org/Prof
iles/display.cfm?ID=848-August 2011
Bangladesh, meaning "Bengal nation," is
a low-lying country located on the Bay of Of the millions of Bangladeshis who have
Bengal between Burma and India, and
migrated for work in nearby countries
has a territory of nearly 57,000 square
over the past three decades, the vast
majority h
miles
(147,570
square
kilometers).
Bangladesh emerged as an independent
state in 1971, separating itself from
Pakistan after nine months of bitter
conflict with enormous casualties of
Bengali civilians.
Bangladesh boasts a population of 158
million people, making the rather small
country the seventh most populous in the
world and one of the most densely
populated. With a majority Muslim Sunni
ave been men.
population
(85
to
90
percent),
Bangladesh is also the third largest
Muslim-majority country in the world,
after Indonesia and Pakistan. The vast
majority of the citizens of Bangladesh self
identify as ethnically Bengali, though
tribal groups concentrated mainly in the regions bordering Burma are also part of
the country's landscape.
Bangladesh has registered a 5 to 6 percent rate of annual economic growth since
the mid-1990s, and has made important progress in the areas of primary
education, population control, and the reduction of hunger. Despite these positive
developments, however, poverty in Bangladesh is widespread, affecting the lives of
perhaps half of the population. In this predominantly rural country, overpopulation
and environmental degradation have contributed to a large, landless population.
About 61 percent of the population of Bangladesh is of working age (15 to 64years-old), while 34 percent is under the age of 14, indicating a moderate youth
bulge. Those who are employed in the formal labor market often work just a few
hours a week at low wages. Thus, while the estimated unemployment rate is
relatively low at about 5 percent, the problem of underemployment prevails.
Widespread poverty, underemployment, and a youthful age structure have all
contributed to the predominance of economically motivated international migration
from Bangladesh. The contract labor migration of less-skilled men to the Arab Gulf
states and to the emerging economies of Asia has been especially prominent.
Though these temporary movements in which workers are authorized by receiving
countries to work for legally specified periods of limited duration have been integral
in contributing to the economy of Bangladesh, this migration stream comes with its
own set of problems.
This profile offers a broad overview of trends in international migration for
Bangladesh as a migrant sending country, with particular emphasis on contract
labor migration and the policy challenges that it poses for the Bangladesh state.
Contract Labor Migration from Bangladesh
Since the 1980s, Bangladesh has been an increasingly important source country in
international flows of contract labor migration. The primary destinations for
Bangladeshi migrants have been the Arab Gulf states, particularly members of the
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). According to the official figures of the Bureau of
Manpower, Employment, and Training (BMET) of the Government of Bangladesh,
over 5 million Bangladeshis migrated to work in the GCC states between 1976 and
2009, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates being the top country
destinations.
International labor migration from Bangladesh began to expand in the 1990s
beyond the GCC states, however, to include a wider range of countries including
Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mauritius, Singapore, and South Korea. Of these newer
destinations, Malaysia has been the most important, officially receiving 698,736
Bangladeshi workers from 1976 to 2009.
Figure 1a: Labor Migration from Bangladesh by Major Destinations, 1980-2010
(Calendar Year)
Source: Government of Bangladesh, Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training
Figure 1b: Labor Migration from Bangladesh by Major Destinations, 1980-2010
(Calendar Year)
Source: Government of Bangladesh, Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training
According to BMET, the vast majority of Bangladeshi workers who migrated
between 1976 and 2008 were unskilled and skilled laborers. Unskilled laborers such
as domestic and agricultural workers constituted 50 percent of the outflow of labor
migrants from Bangladesh during that time, while skilled workers such as
manufacturing and garment workers, computer operators, and electricians made up
31 percent of labor migrants.
Both semi-skilled workers and professionals also participate in international labor
migration from Bangladesh, but to a lesser extent. From 1976 to 2008, semi-skilled
workers such as tailors and masons comprised 16 percent of outflows, while
professionals such as doctors, engineers, teachers, and nurses constituted just 2.9
percent.
Due to former government policies restricting the labor migration of women, the
overwhelming majority of Bangladeshi labor migrants have been men. From 1997
to 2003, women made up less than 1 percent of the worker outflow from
Bangladesh. There are, however, signs of a slight shift away from this gender
imbalance. Though the migration bans had arisen from concerns about the potential
for Bangladeshi women workers to become victims of sexual exploitation and
human trafficking while migrating or residing abroad, the government of
Bangladesh lifted the ban limiting the labor migration of women in 2007. By 2008 –
just one year later – the share of female migrants going abroad to work had risen
to 5 percent of the total.
Remittances
Since the 1990s, remittances have played an increasingly important role in the
national economy of Bangladesh. As shown in Figure 2 (link below), remittances
grew steadily in the opening years of the 21st century. Although at a more
moderate pace, the growth trend continued in the face of the global financial crisis
of the late 2000s and the uprisings taking place in the Middle East in late 2010 and
throughout 2011.
Figure 2: Remittance Flows into Bangladesh from Selected Countries, FY
1998-April 2011
A large proportion of remittance flows to Bangladesh come from the earnings of
Bangladeshi workers in GCC countries. As a result, the recent political unrest
gripping much of the Middle East has emerged as an important policy issue in
Bangladesh. Fears about how the Arab Spring may negatively impact remittance
flows into the economy have been encouraged by the observed drop in the official
numbers of Bangladeshis going abroad as contract workers in 2010.
Contrary to these expectations, however, official remittances to Bangladesh in fiscal
year (FY) 2011 were the highest in the country's history, rising 6 percent from the
previous year to total over $11.5 billion, and representing about 13 percent of the
country's gross domestic product (GDP). Remittances were more than nine times
the level of foreign direct investment flows into the country and also about four
times more than the total foreign aid received.
This somewhat unexpected outcome may be explained by the return migration of
many Bangladeshis from the Middle East, most of whom would have brought their
assets and savings with them upon their return. An additional factor explaining the
high numbers is that those remaining in the Middle East have likely been more
inclined to remit money home instead of saving in their countries of sojourn due to
anxieties about conditions there.
Moreover, both government and private commercial banks have strengthened
programs designed to encourage expatriate Bangladeshis to remit through formal
banking channels instead of informal ones, making those funds remitted more
easily traceable.
Challenges Posed by Contract Labor Migration
The rise of international labor migration has posed increasingly complex and
pressing political challenges for the Bangladesh state. Given the economic
significance of remittances, the facilitation of overseas labor contracts for citizens
has been a critical issue. But the state has also faced growing political pressures to
take on a more vigilant and effective role in ensuring the rights and well-being of its
citizens abroad, especially concerning migrant worker exploitation and widespread
prejudices against Bangladeshi workers, the latter contributing to the already
unpredictable nature of overseas labor markets.
Human rights advocates have been particularly vocal in their calls for migrant
worker protection, bringing attention to the vulnerability of less-skilled Bangladeshi
workers to abuse and exploitation while they are abroad. Types of abuse range
from exploitive employment and pay practices to physical and sexual abuse. Many
of these problems are traced to the dysfunctional dynamics of the recruitment
system for Bangladeshi workers, especially considering the high levels of corruption
at play within it.
In the official system, recruitment begins with potential overseas sponsors stepping
forward. They are expected to guarantee jobs for Bangladeshi workers, either in
their own businesses or in those of others to whom they are providing the service
of procuring foreign labor. Recruiting agencies in Bangladesh that belong to the
Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) function as
intermediaries, matching overseas employers with Bangladeshi workers.
The recruiting agencies are expected to assist workers in signing contracts with the
sponsor that specify the terms of employment, such as the type of job, pay, hours,
provisions for leave, and other conditions. Travel and work visas are issued only
after all of the relevant documents are inspected and approved by government
officials in both the sending and receiving countries.
In Bangladesh, as in many other migrant sending states, the recruitment of lessskilled workers for overseas jobs has become a large and lucrative transnational
industry – one that straddles the labor-sending and labor-receiving states. The
industry is composed of an array of intermediary services in the foreign worker
recruitment and placement process, including entrepreneurial “scouting” agents
who locate would-be migrants in rural parts of the country. These agents negotiate
on behalf of potential migrants with the recruiting agencies, which in turn negotiate
with the international sponsoring companies and other intermediaries in Saudi
Arabia, Malaysia, and other migrant-receiving states.
As labor migration outflows from Bangladesh have grown, so too have the
components of the transnational recruitment industry. The intermediary service
nodes have multiplied, resulting in higher transaction costs that tend to be passed
down to migrants.
According to a 2009 national survey by the International Organization for Migration
in Bangladesh, intermediaries such as scouting agents generated almost 60 percent
of the costs of going abroad for Bangladeshi labor migrants. These costs were the
highest in South Asia.
Underlying the high costs for less-skilled Bangladeshis to go abroad to work is
widespread corruption within the transnational recruitment industry. Intermediary
service providers may engage in dishonest practices that involve the transnational
collusion of multiple businesses as well as government officials. Among other
things, corrupt practices result in the production of false sponsorship documents for
workers.
The illegal practices and high costs imposed by the transnational recruitment
industry have contributed to the growth of an undocumented population of
Bangladeshi workers in the GCC states and other receiving nations. Such a highrisk and high-cost enterprise means that employers may prefer to hire an
undocumented migrant worker over a documented one, thus avoiding the relatively
large expense of recruiting workers from abroad.
For less-skilled Bangladeshi workers, the high costs of arranging employment
abroad may encourage them to overstay their work visas once they have migrated.
In addition, the corruption of the recruitment industry has led to cases of workers
unwittingly purchasing fraudulent documents, only to find that they are
unauthorized immediately upon arrival to their destination.
Under these conditions, less-skilled workers from Bangladesh are at an increased
risk of forced labor, exploitation, abuse, and even human trafficking in their
destination countries. Some find themselves in situations of forced labor or debt
bondage where they face restrictions on their movements, non-payment of wages,
threats, and physical or sexual abuse.
The vulnerability of less-skilled Bangladeshi migrant workers to exploitation,
especially for those who are unauthorized, is also the result of negative public
attitudes towards them in receiving societies. In a study of less-skilled Bangladeshi
labor migrants in the GCC states and Malaysia, it was found that they often
encounter discrimination and an overall stigma associated with being Bangladeshi.
Migrants reported the presence of negative popular stereotypes of Bangladeshi
workers as unruly and prone to participating in criminal activity.
These unfavorable attitudes have contributed to the irresolute reception that has
marked less-skilled labor migration flows from Bangladesh. As highlighted by the
ongoing (as of this writing) political crisis in Libya that has forced Bangladeshi and
other foreign workers there to flee, migratory movements are inherently
unpredictable. In the case of Bangladesh however, this element of intrinsic volatility
is exacerbated by the periodic bans that have been imposed by receiving countries
on the recruitment and entry of less-skilled labor from Bangladesh.
In Kuwait, for example, a ban was imposed on Bangladeshi workers in 1999 and
lifted in 2000 only to be reinstated in 2006 and again in 2008. In 1994, Malaysia
agreed to recruit Bangladeshi workers, but it banned them from entry in 1997. The
doors reopened ten years later in 2007, but closed again in 2009. Saudi Arabia, the
largest overseas labor market for Bangladeshi migrant workers, has worked to
reduce the number of resident Bangladeshis since 2008, though it has not moved to
ban them altogether.
While declining labor market demand and other legitimate factors may inform these
periodic shifts away from welcoming Bangladeshi workers, widespread antipathy
towards them has also played a role. The bans have been driven in part by political
concerns and public anxieties in receiving societies about the disruptive presence of
Bangladeshis, especially those who are unauthorized.
Other Destinations: India and the Global North
In addition to contract labor migration, there are other types of movements that
are part of the larger landscape of international migration in Bangladesh.
Driven by cross-border trade industries and other economic opportunities, there are
irregular and circular migration streams to and from neighboring India. This
migration is also informed by the shared histories of Bangladesh and India, and the
presence of long-standing communities that straddle the borders of the two
countries.
These cross-border movements have, however, been a key point of tension in
India-Bangladesh relations. In India, there is anxiety about unauthorized migration
from Bangladesh and its social and political consequences. Indian border guards
have shot and killed Bangladeshi civilians along the border – causing public outcry
in Bangladesh – and the Indian government is currently erecting a barbed wire
fence along the border in an effort to stem illegal trade and migration.
International migration from Bangladesh today also includes movements towards
the developed world. Bangladeshi diaspora communities have emerged in Australia,
Canada, Great Britain, Italy, and the United States, among other countries. Unlike
contract labor migration, these movements have involved the permanent
settlement of families, and predominantly involve Bangladeshis from urban and
middle-class backgrounds.
Of these migratory flows to the global North, the one to Great Britain has the
longest and most distinctive history. The 1948 Nationality Act in Britain, passed at a
time of labor shortages within the country, allowed unrestricted entry to Great
Britain for the citizens of the realm's former colonies, including present-day
Bangladesh.
Bengalis participated in the larger trends of migration from South Asia to Britain
following the passing of the act, though less extensively than persons from India
and West Pakistan due to the discriminatory policies of the Pakistani government
towards the Bengalis of East Pakistan. Such discriminatory practices included the
denial of passports to Bengalis in an attempt to restrict their overseas travel.
The Bengalis who did make it to Britain in the post-World War II years were largely
young men from rural backgrounds with relatively low levels of education. They
were also largely from Sylhet in Northeastern Bangladesh, a fact that has given the
British Bangladeshi community a distinct regional identity that remains prominent
to the present day.
In the 1960s and 1970s, as British immigration policies were becoming increasingly
restrictive, Bengali migrant men already present in Great Britain began to resettle
their families there. As a result, there are over 350,000 persons of Bangladeshi
origin in Britain today.
Following Great Britain, the United States is home to the second largest
Bangladeshi diaspora community in the global North. In fact, current rates of
Bangladeshi migration to the United States are higher than they are to Britain,
indicating that the Bangladeshi-origin community of the former is likely to grow to
outnumber the one of the latter in the near future.
According to the US Census Bureau, in 1980 there were 5,880 foreign born from
Bangladesh in the United States. The number of Bangladeshis then rose rapidly
over the next two decades, from 21,749 in 1990 to 92,237 by 2000. These
numbers, of course, do not take into account the presence of unauthorized
Bangladeshi migrants in the United States.
Employment-based immigration and family sponsorship are the most important
categories under which Bangladeshis migrate to the United States, though the
Diversity Visa Lottery has also contributed to the growth of the BangladeshiAmerican community since 1990. Popularly known as the green card lottery, the
program strives to ensure diversity in migrant origins and consists of a visa lottery
that is only open to prospective immigrants from countries that have sent fewer
than 50,000 people to the United States in the previous five years.
State Response to Migration's Challenges and Opportunities
The Bangladesh government has been increasingly attentive to relations with the
country's diaspora, particularly with the growing numbers of Bangladeshis settled
abroad in North America, Europe, and other parts of the developed world. In this
they have been encouraged by the large contributions of the Chinese and Indian
diasporas to their countries of origin: two of the world's most important emerging
economies.
To that end, Bangladesh has established the Non-Resident Bangladeshi (NRB)
category to refer to those who were born in Bangladesh but are now permanent or
long-term settlers abroad. Among the privileges of having NRB status is special
eligibility for restricted foreign currency bank accounts in Bangladesh. And when
traveling to Bangladesh, NRBs are not required to pay visa fees.
The standing dual nationality policy of Bangladesh has served to institutionalize
NRB status. The policy allows those who are foreign citizens of Bangladeshi origin
(as well as children born to them) to become citizens of Bangladesh or to affirm
their citizenship. Since the early 2000s, segments of the diaspora have also
vigorously lobbied – so far unsuccessfully – for the extension of voting rights for
elections in Bangladesh.
These concessions for the diaspora notwithstanding, the primary focus of the
Bangladesh government with respect to migration policy has been on contract labor
migration, the major source of remittances (and economic growth) for the country.
Successive governments in Bangladesh have tried to secure and expand outflows of
labor migrants through diplomatic negotiations with labor receiving countries. The
Bangladesh government has also expanded institutions devoted to the regulation of
“manpower export,” or international labor migration.
In 1990, the government set up the Wage Earners Welfare Fund with the goal of
creating a central pool from which to assist migrant workers and their families in
emergency situations. The fund is largely financed through mandatory contributions
of migrant workers.
Then in 2002, the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment was
created with the goal of facilitating labor migration, exploring new labor markets,
and ensuring the welfare of Bangladeshi migrant workers. The Ministry oversees the
BMET, the government agency in charge of registering and clearing labor migrants
for overseas employment.
Four years later, the government of Bangladesh announced the creation of the
Overseas Employment Policy (OEP). Produced in 2006 in consultation with NGOs
devoted to human rights and migrant welfare, the OEP is a comprehensive policy
brief on international labor migration that affirms the goal of expanding overseas
employment as a strategy of economic development for Bangladesh.
More specifically, the OEP acknowledges that overseas employment alleviates the
problems of unemployment and underemployment in Bangladesh, and that
remittances may alleviate poverty and fund investments in housing, health, and
education.
A wide range of policy goals is outlined in the OEP, including the strengthening of
official remittance channels and the expansion and maintenance of overseas
markets. Also discussed are measures for the training and protection of migrant
workers, including reintegration after their return to Bangladesh.
While many of the OEP's specific recommendations still await implementation, the
government of Bangladesh announced plans in 2011 to open an Expatriate Welfare
Bank. The bank will offer loans to those who wish to go abroad and will provide
remittance and job training services.
Despite these gains, however, Bangladesh has not ratified the 1990 UN Convention
on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their
Families. Though Bangladesh is a signatory to the convention, ratification has been
likely been blocked by fears that it might discourage the governments of labor
receiving nations from recruiting Bangladeshi laborers for work in their countries.
Sources
Central Bank of Bangladesh. Economic Data: Wage Earners Remittance Inflows:
Various tables. Dhaka: Government of Bangladesh. Available Online.
Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET). Statistics: Various tables.
Dhaka: Government of Bangladesh. Available Online.
Kibria, Nazli. 2011. Muslims in Motion: Islam and National Identity in the
Bangladeshi Diaspora. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Martin, Philip. 2010. Background Paper WMR 2010 The Future of Labour Migration
Costs. Geneva: International Organization for Migration. Available Online. .
Peach, Ceri. 2006. South Asian migration
Britain. Contemporary South Asia 15: 133-146.
and
settlement
in
Great
Shaham, Dahlia. 2008. Foreign Labor in the Arab Gulf: Challenges to
Nationalization. Al Nakhlah: The Fletcher Online Journal of Southwest Asia and
Islamic Civilization Fall. Available Online.
Siddiqui, Tasneem. 2006. International Labour Migration from Bangladesh: A
Decent Work Perspective. Working Paper No. 66. Geneva: International Labor
Organization. Available Online.
Siddiqui, Tasneem. 2007. Ratifying the UN Convention on Migrant Worker
Rights. The Daily Star, December 18, 2007.