Covid-19 deals a blow to overseas jobs, remittances

Collected
The Covid-19 pandemic has left its effects on overseas jobs, and the inflow of remittance earning for Bangladesh. It is pretty a disquieting news that Bangladeshi expatriates sent home around US$1.29 billion only in remittances in March 2020 - the cheapest during the past 15 months.

It really is evident that Bangladesh has started feeling the bite of global shutdown due to Covid-19 pandemic. The incoming remittance from expatriates is among the key pillars of the Bangladesh economy. However the Covid-19 pandemic has set to deal much blow to the country's overseas job market and the amount of remittance inflow. Right now a huge number of Bangladeshi migrants have lost their jobs or received low wages or no pay, which caused low remittance income.

Besides, numerous Bangladeshi personnel who came home on leave and those who were waiting to fly after getting work visas cannot join work abroad. For the reason that in the meanwhile the destination countries have imposed shutdown or travel ban. This caused a substantial plunge in remittance inflow in a couple of months.

The majority of the remittances result from the Bangladeshis who work in the Gulf and Southeast Asian countries and america, Italy and the United Kingdom. To stem the Covid-19 transmission each one of these affected countries also have enforced lockdown.

Moreover, the countries that always receive foreign personnel had cut their development expenditures. Those countries have instead allocated a big portion of their cover the recovery of their economy. So, the development activities in those countries will go dull and downhill.

This implies demand for foreign employees will drop in those countries - so could be the demand for Bangladeshi workers. Consequently, financial analysts are of the view that given the looming financial recession, the Bangladesh economy could be under serious pressure.

Based on the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) statistics, around 60,000 Bangladeshis go abroad on a monthly basis with jobs. Therefore the queues of these waiting to become listed on overseas jobs will only grow, if the Covid-19 pandemic lingers.

However, economists and migration researchers feel that the immediate need of the hour is to provide short-term financial protection and healthcare to the migrant workers. Concerned authorities should take up mid-term and long-term plan afterwards on ensuring their jobs abroad. The developed countries will now focus more on improving their healthcare system. This may cause them need more workforces.

As part of our migration strategy, Bangladesh should now give attention to the abilities training on nursing, health technology, management, medicine and hospitality. This may heal the wound that may inflict on losing in the scope for exporting traditional development workforces in those countries.

Sarwar Md. Saifullah Khaled is a retired Professor of Economics and Vice Principal at Cumilla Women's Government College, Cumilla.
Source: https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd

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