Bangladeshi migrants get less for lack of language skill

Bangladesh’s migrant workers toil in foreign lands for longer hours compared to peers from other countries, but they earn much less as they lack skills and face a language barrier, depriving themselves of a better future and the country of remittance.

Experts today called on the government to equip aspirant migrant workers with the right set of skills and languages before they depart for jobs, so they can earn more and protect themselves from exploitation.

Syed Manzur Elahi, a former advisor to the caretaker government, said skilled workers can remit more.

For example, Filipino migrant workers send home more in remittance compared to Bangladeshi workers, said the founder of Apex Group.  

“But we are stuck in the unskilled segment of the labour market.”

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal however said skills are not a problem for the migrant workers. “Many Bangladeshis, who went to Saudi Arabia a few decades ago, now own shops and markets there. Our main problem lies in language proficiency.”

The expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry, the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) jointly organised the programme with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.