Inbound remittance from expatriate workers in the Middle East in fiscal year 2014-15 stood slightly above US$9 billion reflecting a rise of 8 percent from the level of previous year. The boost in remittance after a few years of stagnation is attributed to the fact that the two main foreign labour markets for our expatriate workers, i.e. Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have resumed taking Bangladeshi workers. Interestingly, we find that more and more women are travelling abroad as expatriate workers to not only the major destinations, but to new countries like Jordan as well which has hired some 12,924 women to be employed in various sectors.

Out of some 308,000 Bangladeshi workers who found work abroad during the first seven months of 2015, more than 56,000 are women. That there is a growing trend of women finding more opportunity to work in international labour markets is welcome news. Jordan, although not finding a place in the top nine countries that generate remittance from Bangladeshi workers, has secured second position after UAE in ranking for top destination where our female workers are headed. The trend should be encouraged for recruiters to break into non-traditional markets and look at sectors where there is a demand for women to be employed. With Jordan having recruited mostly women in the January-July period, there is no reason why the performance cannot be replicated elsewhere.