State minister for foreign affairs Shahriar Alam on Wednesday said that Bangladesh has some major impediments such as high migration cost, lack of skills and regional imbalances in the migration flows which often undermine the benefits of migration.
Speaking as chief guest at the dissemination programme of the survey conducted by Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit, he said that the government has been working to overcome such obstacles to ensure a sustainable and regular migration.
‘Internal migration is increasing following different factors including the rural-urban development divide, impacts of climate change and natural disasters etc,’ said Shahriar.
The RMMRU survey revealed that the poverty rate of migrant workers’ households remained unchanged in the last three years following their slow progress in income,
About 9.0 per cent of international migrants’ households (HHs) lived below poverty line in both 2014 and in 2017, said the study, conducted in two phases.
Tasneem Siddiqui, founding chair of said following oil prices dropped in international market, the income of the migrant workers remained almost static in Middle Eastern countries.
Many workers are also jobless and many others can’t get desired jobs there. So it has a negative impact on the overall poverty reduction of international migrant households in Bangladesh, she added.
The income of male migrant workers increased only 3.0 per cent in the last three years while women workers’ income remained unchanged, she said.
That means the londontoto income which the women workers earned in the beginning of their jobs abroad, after three years they were in same position in earnings, said RMMRU chair.
Referring to the survey report, she said internal migrants are in more suitable situation in poverty reduction than that of international migrants.
According to the findings, the poverty rates of internal migrants have reduced to 27 per cent from 32 per cent between 2014 and 2017.
The research on ‘Impact of Migration on Poverty and Local Development’ was unveiled at the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) in the city.
Remittances of both male and female international migrant increased nominally during the last three years. Male migrant remitted Tk 183045 annually while their female counterparts sent Tk 118950 each
Between 2005 and 2017 migration cost increased substantially for male workers. The average cost of male migrant workers was Tk 339146 each, the findings said.
Although there is no official migration cost for the women migrant workers, most of them spent Tk 90,000 each to get overseas jobs, the survey also showed.
It found that 27 per cent of workers returned home of surveyed migrant HHs, in 2017. The returning migrant HHs was only 9 per cent in 2014.
The baseline HH survey was conducted in 2014 and the second phase was in 2017. It covered 102 villages in 17 districts in 2014. Some 120 villages and 20 districts were cover in 2017.
The quantitative survey is carried out 12400 HHs of these villages.
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