Migrants’ Contribution to Economy: Challenges for Sustainable Migration

Bangladesh is one of the world’s leading countries in sending labour abroad, with over 13 million citizens working overseas and remittances making up 5-6% of GDP. In the 2024-25 fiscal year, remittances hit a record of $30.3 billion, serving as a vital support for macroeconomic stability. After the July mass uprising, the country’s economy hit a significant low. In spite of this chaos, the migrants’ strong support helped keep the wheel of economy moving. However, while migrants drive national development and help lift families out of poverty, they face systemic challenges that threaten sustainable migration.

 

The economic impact of Bangladeshi migrants extends far beyond raw remittance figures. At the macroeconomic level, remittances consistently exceed both foreign direct investment and official development assistance, providing crucial foreign exchange reserves that stabilise the balance of payments and support import capacity. During periods of economic uncertainty, including the recent pandemic and global supply chain disruptions, remittances demonstrated remarkable resilience, maintaining stable flows when other capital sources contracted sharply.

 

 

At the household level, remittances serve as a powerful poverty-reduction mechanism. Research shows that migrants’ families experience significant improvements in living standards, with remittances financing better nutrition, healthcare access and educational opportunities for children. In rural Bangladesh, where formal employment remains scarce and agricultural livelihoods face mounting climate pressures, remittances provide critical income diversification. Districts with high migration rates show measurably lower poverty rates and demonstrate greater resilience to economic shocks and seasonal vulnerabilities.

 

 

Beyond direct financial transfers, returning migrants bring home valuable skills, technologies and entrepreneurial knowledge accumulated through years of overseas employment. Workers who gain technical expertise in Gulf construction, Malaysian manufacturing, or Singapore services often establish small businesses upon return, creating local employment opportunities and introducing modern business practices to rural communities. Remittances also drive significant infrastructure development in sending communities, with migrants collectively financing the construction of roads, schools, mosques and community centres that transform rural areas and improve access to basic services where government reach remains limited.

 

The migration journey begins with significant financial barriers that trap many workers in debt before they even depart Bangladesh. Migration costs from Bangladesh remain among the highest in South Asia, averaging $3,000-5,000 for Gulf destinations despite government-set fee ceilings of approximately $1,000. This dramatic cost inflation stems from a predatory recruiting industry where multiple layers of middlemen extract excessive fees at every stage of the process. Aspiring migrants often sell ancestral land, exhaust family savings, or take high-interest loans from informal lenders to finance migration, beginning their overseas employment already deeply indebted, a burden that shapes their entire migration experience.

 

 

Fraudulent recruiting agencies compound these financial challenges. Despite formal licensing requirements administered by the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, many agencies operate illegally or engage in systematic deception, sending workers to jobs substantially different from those promised or to employers who routinely violate contractual terms. Workers arriving in destination countries sometimes find themselves trapped in exploitative situations with little practical recourse, their debt burden making return prohibitively expensive. Meanwhile, pre-departure training remains woefully inadequate and poorly aligned with destination country skill requirements, with most workers departing with minimal preparation for the cultural, linguistic and legal environments they will encounter, increasing vulnerability to exploitation.

 

 

In destination countries, particularly Gulf states, the kafala sponsorship system binds workers to employers in ways that facilitate severe rights violations. Workers cannot change employers without sponsor consent, cannot leave the country without exit permits and have limited access to legal remedies when contracts are violated. Wage theft, excessive working hours, unsafe conditions and physical abuse remain widespread, with Bangladeshi missions abroad handling thousands of worker complaints annually. Female domestic workers face particularly acute vulnerabilities, working in private households with minimal oversight and often experiencing contract violations, movement restrictions and abuse.

 

 

Returning migrants confront a disconnect between skills acquired abroad and opportunities available domestically. Many workers return with technical skills valuable in Gulf construction or manufacturing but find few comparable opportunities in Bangladesh. Without targeted reintegration support, returnees struggle to translate their foreign experience into productive employment, potentially squandering the human capital they developed through migration. Most critically, remittances remain underutilised for productive investment, predominantly financing consumption rather than business creation.

 

 

Underlying these specific challenges are deeper systemic governance failures that perpetuate vulnerability across the migration cycle. Migration management remains fragmented across multiple ministries and agencies with overlapping mandates, unclear lines of authority and inadequate inter-institutional coordination. Data systems remain rudimentary and non-interoperable, making evidence-based policy formulation extremely difficult and preventing early identification of emerging problems. The Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, the primary institution responsible for migration governance, lacks the administrative capacity, technical expertise and financial resources needed to regulate a complex recruiting industry effectively, monitor overseas employment conditions or provide comprehensive support services to millions of workers and their families.

 

 

Building sustainable migration requires comprehensive reforms across the entire migration cycle. First, reducing migration costs demands aggressive action against predatory recruiting. This includes strengthening enforcement of fee regulations, creating transparent online platforms connecting workers directly with verified employers and establishing government-to-government agreements that bypass private recruiters.

 

 

Second, pre-departure preparation must be dramatically enhanced through modernised Technical Training Centres with curricula aligned to destination demands. Language training, cultural orientation and rights education should become mandatory. Third, protecting workers abroad requires diplomatic engagement to negotiate bilateral agreements strengthening worker protections, including kafala reforms and minimum wage guarantees. Missions abroad need adequate staffing to provide legal assistance and proactively monitor worker welfare.

 

 

Fourth, reintegration support must become a policy priority through skills recognition systems, entrepreneurship training for returnees, and labour market information services. Remittance channels should be leveraged to promote productive investment through diaspora bonds or matched savings programmes. Fifth, governance requires fundamental restructuring through a unified migration management authorities with clear mandates, comprehensive data systems, and explicit attention to the climate-migration nexus. Finally, digital governance systems must be redesigned with mobility in mind. This means moving beyond rigid permanent address requirements to flexible identity verification, creating interoperable databases that follow beneficiaries across jurisdictions and establishing alternative documentation pathways for climate-displaced populations. 

 

 

 

Bangladeshi migrants have built national prosperity through their labour, yet continue to face systemic barriers that limit the full potential of migration. Transforming migration from a survival strategy into a sustainable development pathway requires comprehensive reforms spanning pre-departure preparation, overseas protection and post-return reintegration. By imparting comprehensive skill-based training, we have the potential to send more skilled migrants abroad, which can further boost their financial status and the national foreign reserves. To implement an easy, friendly migration process and send skilled migrants abroad, the government must coordinate closely with all relevant departments and ensure a robust monitoring system, enabling hassle-free services for outgoing migrants. 

 

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The writer is an Additional Deputy Commissioner at the DC Office, Sirajganj