Poverty declining rapidly among people migrating internally

The poverty rate is falling significantly for families of poorly educated men and women who are leaving villages in internal and international migrations, says a study.

"Internal migration plays the biggest role in reducing poverty," said the study conducted by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), an affiliate of the University of Dhaka.

Professor Dr Tasneem Siddiqui, who was the founding chairman of RMMRU, highlighted the findings at a workshop titled "Impact of migration on transformation to sustainability: poverty and development in Bangladesh" at a hotel in the capital on Wednesday.

The study was conducted on 3,323 families and 9,969 observations were collected in three steps. Of the families, 23% were internal migrants, 43% international migrants, and 33% were non-migrants.

The impact of migration on the poverty rate in 2014, 2017, and 2020 has been highlighted in three steps.

Among the households surveyed, 31% of internal migrants in 2014 lived below the poverty line, which came down to 11% in 2020.

Similarly, among international migrants, 10% were found below the poverty line in 2014, which dropped to 6% in 2020.

And among non-migrant families, the rate was 20% in 2014, which dropped to 10% in 2020.

Dr Tasneem Siddiqui said, "Migration enhanced the economic sustainability of households. Migration helped households withstand shocks triggered by the pandemic and climate change-related disasters."  

According to the research, migration plays an important role in the flow of remittances and, from 2014 to 2020, the cost of migration has decreased steadily.

Speaking as chief guest on the occasion, State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Shahriar Alam, said migrants have to suffer a lot in the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Many international migrants have moved back to the country. We are again working on sending manpower to different countries because they make huge contributions to our economy," he added.

The state minister also said the cost of migrating for women is declining rapidly.

Former caretaker government adviser Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman said, "Now we have to take up the necessary agenda to make our manpower skilled. Among them, many local and foreign migrants have returned to their villages and we have to think about them too."

Professor Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, quoting a study, said the number of migrants from Rangpur was 4-5% and it was 20% from places like Chattogram.

The financial capacity of migrants to go abroad is also a big challenge, he added.