Md Sumon Alom went to Singapore 10 years back when he earned a little as he could not communicate with his owner either in English or Malay. Three years ago, he decided to have professional training and learn English and Malay languages.
Later, he got admitted into a coaching centre where he learnt how to work more skillfully within one year. He can now speak and read both English and Malay.
Alom, a worker-turned-entrepreneur, is currently doing business with the nationals of three countries--Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
“I went through a very hard time as I could not pay back my loan which my family took before coming to Singapore. I worked as a construction worker for five years in Singapore but my fate remained unchanged. Later, I realised that I needed to receive training and know languages. Now I can help my family, relatives and also expatriates,” Alom told The Business Post on Monday.
“Workers should make them skilled for their jobs and must learn the languages of the destination countries. He or she doesn’t need to be a language expert but should be communicative,” he opined.
Like Alom, the majority of workers go abroad without receiving training and knowing the languages of their respective countries. Even they cannot communicate with their bosses in their workplaces. As a result, they are deprived of handsome salaries.
Migration experts said skills and knowledge of languages in workplaces and destination countries are important to earn more money.
Remittance can be boosted and fear of reserves shortage can be allayed if the government takes proper steps to make workers skilled and enhance their language skills, they added.
Bangladeshi workers are still getting low wages in the global market. Even Bangladeshi per-worker remittance is lower than its competitors like the Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India.
The Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment conducted a study titled "An Assessment of Basic Services and Their Access for Migrant Workers in Countries of Destination" published in April 2023.
The study conducted on 479 migrant workers in FY2021-22 found that 52 per cent of workers did not know the language. “Language barrier stands in the way of their good earnings.”
Of the migrant workers, as many as 65 per cent lacked necessary health facilities at their destinations, 69 per cent food facilities and 44 per cent shelter.
The study also found that workers were facing severe problems in seeking remedies for experiencing humiliation as well as physical, mental and sexual abuse in workplaces.
“Inability to communicate due to linguistic inefficiency is mostly behind the oppression as they cannot protest and provide answers to their owners perfectly. Even they could not seek justice for their language inefficiencies,” it says.
About 11.37 lakh workers went abroad in FY23, but only 1.20 lakh of them got training under short courses of technical training centres the same year, according to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET).
Md Salah Uddin, director (Training Operation) of BMET, told The Business Post, “Our technical training centres' capacity has increased as we provided training to 1.2 lakh. It was only 40 thousand earlier. The number will increase after the newly inaugurated 40 technical training centres become fully operational.”
According to the observation of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), less skilled workers remit less per year and work fewer years abroad.
As per the BMET data, a record of 11.35 lakh workers went abroad last year.
The Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) in its 2022 Migration Trends Report said about 78.64 per cent of workers who migrated in 2022 were less skilled and it was 75.24 per cent in 2021.
Of the total, about 3.26 per cent was semi-skilled (tailors, construction workers, and light machine operators). Only less than 1 per cent were highly professionals like doctors, nurses, engineers and teachers.
Bangladeshi workers’ wages not satisfactory
The IOM surveyed 1,000 remittance-receiving homes in 2020 and found that over the previous decade, skilled migrants, on average, sent home Tk 2.55 lakh a year whereas less skilled ones sent Tk 1.55 lakh.
Skilled workers send money to their wives on average for 10 years before returning home but less skilled workers send money for six years, it found.
The average monthly remittance sent by a Bangladeshi expat is $203.33 while it is $564.1 for a Filipino worker, according to a study carried out by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in 2019.
It showed that the monthly average income of a Pakistani expat is $275.74 while $395.71 for an Indian and $532.71 for a Chinese citizen.
Ratio of skilled migration dropping
A total of 4.99 lakh workers migrated in FY2019-20 and 33.3 per cent or 1.66 lakh of them were skilled, according to the expatriates’ welfare ministry.
In FY2020-21, the number of skilled workers was 22.68 per cent or 61,690 of the total workers (skilled and unskilled).
In FY2021-22, about 9.66 lakh migrated and of them, 20.4 per cent or 1.97 lakh were skilled. In FY2022-23, the number of migrated workers was 11.37 lakh and of them, 1.20 lakh or 10.5 per cent were skilled.
Recently, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told the media, “Many countries often seek doctors, nurses, caregivers etc from us. But we failed to provide adequate numbers of workers due to a lack of proper skills and language proficiency.”
"Hong Kong offered us to provide 28,000 labour forces, but we could not send even 2,000 due to lack of appropriate skills,” he said.
Total remittance also dropping
After many initiatives like incentives for sending money by a minimum of 5 per cent, the yearly remittance flow is declining day by day.
Remittance was $21.75 billion in 2020, $22.21 billion in 2021, $21.50 billion in 2022 and $21.05 billion as of December last year, Bangladesh Bank sources said.
Govt initiative to create skilled workforce
There are 110 technical training centres under BMET and 70 of them are fully operational technical training centres.
The government also is planning to build technical training centres in every upazila across the country.
Md Salah Uddin, director (Training Operation) of BMET, told The Business Post that they concentrate on quality training and increasing the number of trained manpower.
“We have many limitations but I hope we can train the workers at upazila level. The ministry is planning to build more centres.”
The government technical training centres (TTCs) offer different courses to build drivers, caregivers, domestic staff, hospitality personnel, electricians, quality control supervisors, refrigeration and air conditioning, plumbing and pipefitting and general electrical workers.
Even they offer several language courses. Some 32 TTCs provide Japanese language training for six months, 16 offer four-month Korean language training, eight provide two-month English courses, and three centres offer three-month Chinese language training.
Md Kamruzzaman, principal at Cumilla TTC, told The Business Post that they provide training in Japanese and Korean languages and other technical courses.
“We need 58 teachers but we have only 19 teachers. We send the report every month to the ministry. Maybe the ministry will take the initiative in this regard,” he said.
What do experts say?
Migration expert Asif Munier told The Business Post that the number of training centres must be increased with quality trainers. At the same time, the government should increase budgetary allocation to train the workers who want to go abroad. Otherwise, it will be tough to build skilled workers.
“There is a lack of skilled manpower across the globe. We have manpower and we can make them assets through proper training. We have the chance to earn a huge amount of remittance if a master plan is devised,” he said.
“There is also a lack of coordination among the ministries to build and send the workers to different countries. The government, especially the expat welfare ministry, should concentrate on working in good coordination,” he said.
“Many people want to get training but they have to come to Dhaka or other cities. A good number of them do not agree to leave their hometown. It will be good if the government decentralise the system,” he added.
Dr Syeda Rozana Rashid, a migration expert and professor of the International Relations Department at Dhaka University, told The Business Post that the demand for skilled labourers is high in the market but we don’t have. Even I don't see any initiative on a large scale.”
“There is stiff competition in the existing market. Most of the workers go to markets where brokers or syndicates operate and send unskilled workers. As a result, we cannot check the flow of unskilled workers and lose remittance,” she said.
Prof CR Abrar, executive director at RMMRU, said only training in both hard and soft skills can increase the remittance flow. The government should take a massive initiative in this regard, he added.
