Viewing migrants as agents of development

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called upon the world leaders this week to view every migrant as a 'human person' instead of treating him/her as only a factor of production. Like every other person, they must enjoy all rights. They are not just an 'element of economic activity or production', she said.
Reports say experts from 58 countries, in a meting in the city, agreed to work together to press putting the issue of migration and development in place in the post-millennium development goals (MDGs) agenda. They also recommended for creating space for further debate on the issues like migration rights, standard-setting for work, skill, job security, livelihood, cost of remittance, migration costs etc.,  to make strong lobbying for the realising the afore-mentioned demand.
In fact, there is a growing need for social protection for migrants and members of their families in Third World countries like Bangladesh that are exposed to climate change and some insurmountable challenges, while safeguarding lives and livelihoods of millions of people.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms Navi Pillay, talking on the issue recently, said if all migrants came together to form a country, it would be the fifth most populous on the planet. Yet the migrants remain 'largely invisible,' defined only in terms of what they can deliver for others, and not as individuals entitled to the full range of human rights, she said.
With a rapid rise in world population in tandem with technological advances and production management, demand for basic services is rising to shape up global human mobility patterns. The world needs to outline the ways how the developed and developing countries together can address the challenges of global demographics and reap benefit from migration and mobility.
Experts, however, stress the need to make migration safe, orderly and beneficial. Rights of migrants should be at the helm in all discussions and dialogues. In both the countries of origin and destination, there is a need to portray migration and migrant workers positively. The nation must de-mystify migration - to tell the people that it is a 'win-win' for all societies, they said.
What is regrettable is that due to reasons operational both within Bangladesh and in the recipient countries, Bangladeshi migrant workers have become one of the most vulnerable sections of the total labour force. They continue to face unending hardship both at home and in destination countries.
In fact, unscrupulous recruitment practices by a section of agents, have led to high costs, fraudulent practices and pauperisation of a section of migrant workers. In destination countries, due to the arbitrariness of the employers and discriminatory policies of the recipient nations, many migrants face exploitation and loss of rights in the form of low and irregular wages, bad working conditions and restrictions on their movements.
Among the 70 developing countries who receive a sizeable portion of remittance, Bangladesh is among the top 10, India being the second. Nonetheless, compared to India, per capita remittance earning of Bangladesh, in terms of total population, is 35 per cent higher.
With no tax breaks, with no subsidies and special facilities that are given to some sectors, Bangladesh's expatriate workers send home nearly $16 billion without any hope of investment from anybody. Hardly any investment is made on migration; they are mostly on their own and take all the risks themselves. As such, migration of labour is an extremely important issue in Bangladesh.
The market for migrant workers is highly imperfect, characterised by high transaction costs, pervasive information gaps and misplaced expectations. The market imperfections are often evident in based and unfair labour contracts. Recruiting agents use to reap abnormal profits, largely at the expense of the migrant workers' interests.
Language barriers and a lack of understanding of the country's legal system make it difficult for migrant workers to seek legal remedies against unfair labour practices. The unhealthy competition among recruiting agencies from different developing countries often exacerbates the situation.  
In Bangladesh, migrants do not have a formal source of information about the international labour market, placement, recruiting procedure and costs and benefits. That is why the aspirant migrant has to go to the informal sources that just facilitate their abuse or exploitation. A very strong monitoring body or a task force is needed which will monitor all the different actions or policies and all the rules and regulations of the recruitment agencies.
People's attitude towards the migrant workers does need to be otherwise changed. The media should play a vital role to build their image and keep on telling everybody about their contribution to the society, the economy as well as the pain and sufferings of their families and trauma that they face at the time of leaving their families behind. The civil society also needs to raise their voice in favour of migrant workers, to give migrant workers a voice.
Even though there are pieces of legislation to safeguard the interests of the migrant workers, the respective host governments are often negligent in implementing these. There are complications at entry points due to inappropriate visas, invalid paperwork and dubious job contracts issued by corrupt recruiting agents. Once in service, the main difficulties reported by migrant workers are low, delayed, partial or prolonged non-payment of salaries, as well mistreatment by employers, extremely poor working conditions and lack of welfare provisions or help from Bangladeshi missions.
Under the circumstances, migrants need to be viewed as agents of development. There is a need to create an enabling environment for them -- especially women and girls -- to go abroad. They should otherwise be provided with basic education, vocational and technical training that match changing demand in markets. There should also be greater partnership and collaboration between the developed and developing countries in sharing and mitigating the sufferings of the hapless migrants.                                        
    szkhan@dhaka.net