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Bangladeshi migrant workers sent the least remittance compared to workers from other countries employed in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.
In the Migration and Development Brief of November titled ‘COVID-19 Crisis Through a Migration Lens’, the World Bank said the average monthly remittance sent by a Bangladeshi migrant worker who performs manual work is only $203. On the other hand, a Pakistani worker remits $276 while an Indian sends home $396. Outside South Asia, a Chinese migrant remits $533 and a Philippine migrant $564 a month.
Dr Tasneem Siddique, founding chair of the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), told The Business Post, “Most Bangladeshi workers working in the GCC are not highly trained or skilled. A skilled worker can earn a lot more than an unskilled or less skilled migrant.
“Besides skilled workers, Gulf countries need many manual labourers. And Bangladeshi workers are performing in these types of low-paid jobs.”
She said we need to pay attention to training focusing on the health sector and other technical trades to improve performance. Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the world needs more health professionals, assistants and nurses. “Bangladesh can enter more strongly in European countries as they need many health workers,” she said.
The World Bank report said that at least 50 per cent of Bangladesh’s five million migrants in the GCC countries are less-skilled workers. The brief said that the hike in remittances from more-skilled Bangladeshi migrants could be a windfall for Bangladesh and its migrants.
Employment fell in GCC
The employment of workers from Bangladesh in GCC countries fell by 19 per cent in the first three months of 2021 compared to the same period last year. But the deployment of workers from Pakistan fell by 11 per cent in first nine months of 2021 compared to the same period of 2020, the WB said.
The World Bank has projected lower remittance growth for Bangladesh than Pakistan, India, the Philippines and China in 2021 due to the slower outmigration of migrants who returned home amid the pandemic.
“In 2021, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are projected to reach $589 billion, registering a 7.3 per cent increase. The recovery in 2021 follows the resilience of flows seen in 2020, when remittances recorded only a modest 1.7 per cent decline to $549 billion, in the face of one of the deepest recorded global recessions,” WB said.
In Bangladesh, although remittances rose above pre–Covid and 2020 levels by almost 6 per cent to $23 billion in response to the government’s tax cuts and other incentives in 2021, a slowdown in growth is distinct.
Syed Saiful Haque, Chairman, WARBE Development Foundation, said: “Low wage for Bangladeshi migrant workers is not a new phenomenon. They earn less because of their low skill. Neither government nor any other organisation, including recruiting agencies, took pragmatic steps to increase the number of skilled workers. Recruiting agencies earn against each migrant. They are not motivated to send skilled manpower because they don’t pay as much as the unskilled ones.”
Remittance inflow may decline further in coming years, he warned.
The World Bank also forecast a decrease in migrant workers flow to GCC countries in the coming days due to the reform programmers taken by GCC governments to employ more from among the natives.
