Skip to main content
News - 
Global

Lack of skills and low levels of financial literacy make migrant communities vulnerable: IOM report

Dhaka – On the International Day of Family Remittances, the United Nation’s Migration Agency, International Organization for Migration (IOM), urges communities to support the reintegration and combat stigmatization of returning migrant workers to Bangladesh. Due to the economic and labour crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers are expected to return by the end of the year. Recession-related job losses will impact not only remittance-receiving households but their extended communities.  

In 2019, USD 18.32 billion was remitted to Bangladesh, the third highest recipient of remittance in South Asia. According to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), in 2019 alone, over 700,000 migrant workers left the country in search of employment abroad and over 73 per cent of remittances were sent from Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Remittance inflows to Bangladesh directly impact socio-economic development and act as a lifeline to vulnerable communities.  

On 16 June 2020, IOM released key recommendations from a report on Migration, Family Remittances, Assets and Skills Categories in Bangladesh. The report includes findings from a 2019 survey of 1,000 remittance-dependent households and qualitative discussions with key stakeholders. The survey found that higher-skilled workers send more money than the less skilled migrants and that an increase in skills increased the amount remitted by up to USD 255 per month between 2009 and 2019. Migrants’ skills determined how remittances were invested and saved, with skilled migrants requesting family members to invest remittances into savings accounts whereas unskilled migrants generally used remittance to pay off loans. Higher skilled migrants were employed in better paid jobs and were more likely to send higher remittances for longer periods than lower skilled migrant workers. 

The findings showed that Bangladeshi migrant workers and remittance senders were overwhelmingly men (98%), about 12 per cent of migrant workers did not attend school at all and nearly 80 per cent did not continue studying after secondary school. Of the surveyed migrant workers, half worked as employees for a firm or company (49%) and nearly one-quarter (26.%) worked as labourers – daily wage (14%), part time (12%), and construction (15%). The economic return on migration is lower in Bangladesh than countries with a skilled-migrant workforce because the amount that unskilled and lower-skilled workers remit is much lower than that of skilled workers.   

The report indicated that Dhaka and Chattogram divisions had the highest concentration of remittance-receiving households (76%) and a total of 65 per cent of those households were headed by women who were likely to be unemployed and who generally invested remittance in non-income generating activities. The survey showed that remittances were generally used to meet short-term needs and were rarely used to diversify assets or build financial resilience, which further increased the households’ dependence on remittances. Low financial literacy of the migrants and their families placed them in a precarious situation in terms of income stability, remittance management, and assets building.  

Recommendations from the study include investing in education and skills training so that lower skilled migrant workers can earn more overseas and in order to break the cycle of debt and assist remittance dependent households to attain financial independence, measures should be taken to improve access to debt management, investment and asset diversification information/training.  

Addressing the research findings, Giorgi Gigauri, Chief of Mission in Bangladesh, said, “now more than ever we need to focus on supporting remittance-dependent communities who are impacted by the recession. We need to support the Government to prioritize skills development of migrant workers so they can increase remittance flow to Bangladesh, and we also need to focus on providing financial literacy training, particularly to women, to improve productive investment of remittances and to build the resilience and financial independence of remittance-reliant households.” 

For further communication and information, contact Md. Sariful Islam at IOM Dhaka, T:  +88 02 55 04 48 81 | M:  +880 1915631608, Email: mdsislam@iom.int 

Share this page via:

Regions
Office type
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Asia and the Pacific
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas (The)
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cabo Verde
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Central African Republic (the)
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros (the)
Congo (the)
Costa Rica
Côte d'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czechia
Democratic Republic of the Congo (the)
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic (the)
East and Horn of Africa
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Eritrea
Estonia
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Europe and Central Asia
Fiji
Finland
France
Gabon
Gambia (the)
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Global Office in Brussels
Global Office in Washington
Greece
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
IOM Office at the United Nations
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Iraq
Ireland
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Lao People's Democratic Republic (the)
Latin America and the Caribbean
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Manila Administrative Centre
Marshall Islands (the)
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia (Federated States of)
Middle East and North Africa
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands (Kingdom of the)
New Zealand
Niger (the)
Nigeria
North Macedonia
Norway
Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Panama Administrative Centre
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines (the)
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Republic of Korea
Republic of Moldova (the)
Romania
Russian Federation (the)
Rwanda
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Sudan
Spain
Sri Lanka
Subregional Office in Brussels
Subregional Office in Pretoria
Sudan (the)
Sweden
Switzerland
Syrian Arab Republic (the)
Tajikistan
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Türkiye
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)
United Republic of Tanzania (the)
UNSC Resolution 1244-Administered Kosovo
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)
Viet Nam
West and Central Africa
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe