Male migrants earn 70 pc more than female counterparts: Survey

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Economic Reporter :
Male migrants from Bangladesh to different countries of the world earn 70 percent more than their female counterparts, according a survey conducted by Refugee and Migration Movement Research Unit (RMMRU).
“The cost of migration in male international migrants was over 3.5 times higher than that for female international migrants. The average cost of migration for female migrants was Taka 90,000 and for male migrants it was Taka 3,39,146,” the survey report said.
The findings of the survey were revealed at a workshop on “Impact of migration on poverty and local development” at the CIRDAP auditorium here.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md. Shahriar Alam addressed the workshop as the chief guest.
Executive Director of BCAS Dr Atiq Rahman, Prof Abdur Rob Khan, Prof Bazlur H Khankaer of Professor of Economics at Dhaka University Prof Bazlur H Khondoker and Senior Programme Officer of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation(SDC) Nazia Haider , among others, addressed the workshop.
Founding Chair of RMMRU Dr Tasneem Siddiqui made a presentation highlighting different aspects of the survey on the impact of migration on poverty and local development at the workshop.
State Minister Shahriar said the government has ensured easy process of sending migrant workers to foreign countries for increasing flow of remittances.
The average migrant sending cost has reduced significantly as a result of migrant-friendly policies of the government, he said adding, “At present, Bangladeshi workers are going abroad at a nominal cost, which eventually will contribute to the economy of the country.”
“Bangladesh economy largely depends on remittances sent by migrant workers…. So, we are giving special importance to safety and security of both male and female migrant workers,” Shahriar said.
Stressing the need for developing skilled workers for enhancing foreign currency earnings, he said the country should explore economically potential countries to increase the number of migrant workers.
In her presentation, Tasneem Siddiqui said migration takes place due to interaction of macro-level factors such as environmental, social, economic, political and demographic combined with meso level factors.
She said during the baseline survey of 2014, 9 percent of the international migrant households were returnee migrant households and rest 91 percent were households of current migrants.
The survey found that remittance of both male and female international migrants increased nominally between 2014 and 2017.
Male international migrants remitted Taka 183,045 annually while their female counterparts remitted Taka 118,950, it added. Dr Atiq said climate change issue should be considered seriously as it has close linkage with both internal and international migration.
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