Bangladesh ranks 6th in sending migrants

With 7.34 million people living abroad, Bangladesh has ranked the sixth largest migrant sender and eighth biggest remittance receiver country in 2020, according to the International Organization for Migration’s flagship World Migration Report 2022.

India is the world’s leading migrant-sending country with 18 million people, followed by Mexico with 11 million, Russian Federation 10.8 million, China 10 million and Syrian Arab Republic 8 million. Pakistan follows Bangladesh with 6.14 million, Ukraine 6.05, Philippines 6.01 and Poland 4.82 million.

Last year, 281 million people lived outside their country of origin last year, up from 272 million in 2019. However, 169 million are labour migrants, the rest is refugee, asylum seekers and others.

From Bangladesh, 83,583 people became refugees or asylum seekers in 2020.

The US remains the top migrant-receiving country, followed by Germany, Saudi Arabia, Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, France, Canada, Australia and Spain.  

The number of air passengers globally dropped by 60 per cent to 1.8 billion in 2020, down from 4.5 billion in 2019 during the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, internal displacement due to disaster, conflict and violence rose to 40.5 million from 31.5 million, the report said.  

Bangladesh 8th remittance-receiving country

Bangladesh is the eighth top remittance-receiving country in the world and fifth in Asia. India, China, Mexico, the Philippines, Egypt, Pakistan, and France are top seven receiving countries.

In 2019-20, Bangladesh received $21.75 billion. However, Pakistan got $26.11 billion and India received $83.15 billion in remittance. In sending remittance, Bangladesh is followed by Germany and Nigeria.

The World Bank estimates that the Bangladeshi population abroad sent home over $18 billion in 2019, with 73 per cent coming from those working in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. These remittances account for over 6 per cent of GDP, representing the country’s second-largest source of foreign income.

In 2020, despite the impact of Covid-19, which slowed remittance flows globally, Bangladesh received $21.75 billion in remittance.

“Overall, international migration has been a critical part of the development story of Bangladesh, with migrants moving to pursue opportunities for economic and social, and then helping raise the living standards in the home,” said Fathima Nusrath Ghazzali, IOM Bangladesh’s Officer In Charge.

Efforts by policymakers to encourage and facilitate the sending of remittances have greatly aided the remittance landscape in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Bank more than tripled the ceiling on its 2019 cash incentive scheme – whereby remittance beneficiaries receive a 2 per cent bonus on transfers made using formal systems – up to $5,000. Additionally, some commercial banks are providing an additional one per cent incentive to increase the attractiveness of sending remittances. Due to the pandemic, global remittance flow was worth $702 billion in 2020, which is $17 billion, down from $719 billion in 2019.