Migration study shows
The global economic crisis has affected Bangladeshi migrants in Italy deeply, forcing them to ask for money from home to make ends meet, said a research released in Dhaka yesterday.
Many migrants, who left Bangladesh three to five years back by spending Tk 7-13 lakh, have not been able to settle in business or employment, or even decent accommodation in some cases, let alone being able to remit money home, the study found.
“Even those who migrated up to 12 years ago took a number of years before they could establish themselves. Those employed in factories also run the risk of losing their jobs because of the global economic downturn,” it said.
Nicoletta Del Franco conducted the research titled “International migration from Bangladesh to Italy: exploring the social impact on those left behind”, under a project by Terre des Hommes Italia (TDH) and Warbe Development Foundation (WDF) with support from the European Union (EU).
Based on case studies on migrants’ households in Brahmanbaria and observations by the NGOs, the study was presented at a dialogue at the CIRDAP Auditorium in Dhaka.
“The migrants’ dream to earn Tk 1 lakh a month, but that generally does not come true of late, which is likely to put pressure on and worsen the economic situation of those left behind and have a negative impact on the process of family reunification,” Nicoletta observed.
Many industries are still shutting down in Italy, home to an estimated one lakh Bangladeshis, making it the second largest Bangladeshi community after the UK.
Franco said the migrants’ households studied were rich and so their wives or others left behind did not have too many problems.
“If this was the case of the comparatively poor families, there would be disasters in their families,” she added.
Dr Daniele Cologna of Codici Social Research Agency of Italy said Bangladeshi migrants have poor language skills and debt at home, but they have adaptability to extant job opportunities.
“It is their readiness to be employed in low skills or low quality jobs that allow them to fit easily into Italy’s manufacturing districts’ need of low-wage labour,” he said.
In the current recession, many manufacturing firms are shutting down, Cologna said, and immigrant workers are the first to be fired. Laid-off Bangladeshi workers living in Italy cannot go back and have a hard time finding new jobs.
EU Ambassador Stefan Frowein underlined the need to adopt a human-rights based approach, both in sending and receiving countries, within their current migration and integration policies, which currently are often at odds with international human rights standards.
Expatriates’ Welfare Secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan stressed the need for such academic research that could help intervene with public policy on migration.
The government is setting up 35 more training centres to upgrade the aspiring migrants’ skills, and about to open 10 labour wings to look after the Bangladeshi migrants.
