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International Migration and Remittances for Economic Development in Bangladesh: An Overview

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Economic and Social Development of Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh has a long history of international migration. In 2015, there were almost 8.6 million Bangladeshi migrants working throughout the world. Remittances from these migrants have significantly contributed to the country’s economy as well as to its overall development. This chapter looks at the trends, features, and factors affecting international migration and provides an overview of the role that remittance plays in Bangladesh’s overall economic development. Finally, the chapter discusses some policy options aimed at facilitating international migration and enhancing the effects of remittances on welfare.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Colombo Process was established in 2003 as a regional consultative process on the management of overseas employment and contractual labor for countries of origin in Asia. The Ministers of Labor from Asian overseas worker source countries made recommendations for the effective management of overseas employment programs and agreed to regularly meet for follow-up. These ministerial consultations became known as the “ Colombo Process”. The three main themes of the Colombo Process are (a) protection and provision of services to temporary overseas contractual workers; (b) optimizing benefits of organized labor mobility; and (c) capacity building, data collection, and inter-state cooperation. The current membership of the Colombo Process consists of 12 member states (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan , the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam). For more details, see www.colomboprocess.org.

  2. 2.

    The development of the garment sector in Jordan created an increase in demand for Bangladeshi skilled workers. Bangladesh’s semi-skilled workers, however, tend to find jobs in South Korea.

  3. 3.

    The use of informal channels is not significant, as due to the underdevelopment of remittance companies in Bangladesh, migrants need to transfer money through banks or foreign exchange bureaus (see IOM 2013).

  4. 4.

    However, using time series analysis for the period 1976–2010 , Hatemi-J and Uddin (2014) show both positive and bi-directional causal relationships between remittance flows and poverty reduction in Bangladesh.

  5. 5.

    However, the daily activities of wives are more restricted among extended families living together with in-laws (Siddiqui 2016).

  6. 6.

    https://brac.net/microfinance-programme/item/858-migration-loans. In addition, BRAC provides migrant households with remittance loans that enable households to access lump sums of money for larger investments or expenditures, as clients have a secure flow of remittances with which to steadily pay off loan installments each month. Between June 2014 and June 2015, BRAC offered remittance loans to 8000 households.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chiba Keizai University, Chiba, Japan

    Akira Murata

Authors
  1. Akira Murata
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Yasuyuki Sawada

  2. Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Minhaj Mahmud

  3. Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan

    Naohiro Kitano

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Murata, A. (2018). International Migration and Remittances for Economic Development in Bangladesh: An Overview. In: Sawada, Y., Mahmud, M., Kitano, N. (eds) Economic and Social Development of Bangladesh. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63838-6_5

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