By Md. Zillur Rahaman

Every year on December 18, International Migrants Day is celebrated in all the member countries of the United Nations (UN). The UN General Assembly decided to observe the day on December 4, 2000 worldwide. Basically, the origin of this day is around the issues related to the interest of large number of immigrants and the massive rate of immigration scattered in different parts of the world. On 18 December 1990, the General Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Protection of the Interests of Migrant Workers in the form of Resolution No. 45/158 for Adequate Security and the Fair Rights of Their Families.

Remittances are earned through migrants and it is one of the main sources of foreign exchange for a developing country like Bangladesh. And remittance is the lifeblood of the country's economy and the foundation of development, the golden step of dreams and one of the driving forces of the economy. But strong remittances require skilled and trained manpower. And skilled and trained immigrants are in great demand abroad.

There is a need to immigrate by acquiring skills through training, but due to the special demand of Bangladeshi workers in the foreign labor market, many workers immigrate, but in most cases they immigrate with very little qualifications or skills or are completely unskilled. As a result they are not able to engage in the desired work. Due to lack of skills and ignorance, they are subjected to various abuses and multidisciplinary torture. A little awareness can prevent this abuse and torture. More skills and training preparation help them to boost their confidence as well as give them courage to fight against any human rights violations and abuses.

In fact, the things that should be given importance to immigrants before going abroad is to have a proper understanding of the nature and type of work that they are going abroad with and at the same time to have an interest in that work. After reaching the country of destination, competently perform the duties assigned to him properly, sharpening and enhancing one's skills through training, maintain good relationship with employer and display appropriate desired behavior, respect and abide by the law and order and culture of the destination country, not engaging in criminal, illegal and anti-social activities in the destination country and saving and investing the hard-earned money repatriated properly, to enhance the honor and reputation of the country by exhibiting skills and expertise abroad.

During the Industrial Revolution, skills were considered tools of the trade. In a technology-dependent world, the faster technological knowledge and skills can be developed, the easier it will be to keep pace with the times. But unfortunately, in the education curriculum of Bangladesh, theoretical knowledge is more effective than practical knowledge for skill development in technical education. But in foreign countries, most of the cases are based on skills.

There are 71 technical training centers under the jurisdiction of Manpower Employment and Training Bureau, which is the foremost institution working in Bangladesh for the development of technical skills and technical skills in the migration prone areas of the country. The government wants to take the branches of these training centers to the upazila level. But there is a dearth of skilled trainers to run all these technical institutes. In this case, the government should increase the number of training centers and eliminate the shortage of skilled trainers.

Not only lack of technical knowledge but also many migrants have little knowledge about the language, laws and climate of the destination country before migration. A study of more than 100 immigrants who have worked abroad shows that they have a lack of technical skills on the one hand, on the other hand, lack of cultural awareness, communication inefficiency, construction workers' own weak physical structure, lack of proper understanding of hygiene and sanitation including diet, modernInability to operate machinery, lack of professional attitude.The interesting thing is that despite these deficiencies or weaknesses, these immigrants have increased the reserves of the country day by day.

However, future immigration policy needs to be planned keeping in mind the development of technology. Therefore, our labor market may be threatened if we do not infuse technology knowledge among our labor migration aspirants at this time. KSA is a big labor market for us who have already started a Saudization program where it is said that at least 20 percent of a factory will be staffed by Saudi nationals.

As a result of this, 12 types of jobs for expatriates have been announced. So here is the big challenge. Countries are starting to turn around again after COVID-19. New labor markets are opening in different countries but in this case the use of technical skills will be the highest. Once in the villages where many laborers were needed to thresh paddy, one machine can do the work of many people. The man who owns a machine or can master the technology of running a machine survives in the competition, or has to disappear in the womb of time in the war with the present. So we need to introduce advanced technology skills and training to those who want to go abroad. Due to technical skills and training, many Indian workers are working with repute in our country, and they are also showing good skills in corporate companies in America and Europe.

Out of a record number of 10,08,525 workers from Bangladesh in 2017, only 4,34,000 skilled workers migrated to different countries around the world. In 2018, out of 7,34,181 migrants, the number of skilled workers was only 3,18,000. On the other hand, in 2019, out of 7 lakh migrants, the number of skilled workers was 3.04 lakh. Taking low skills into consideration, it can be seen that instead of 4 lakh low skilled workers in 2017, only 2.83 lakh low skilled workers went abroad for work in 2018 and 1.97 lakh in 2019. On the other hand, semi-skilled labor dispatch decreased from 1.55 lakh in 2017 to 1.17 lakh in 2018 and increased slightly to 1.42 lakh in 2019.

Basically, on the eve of the beginning of the journey of the state called Bangladesh, to keep the wheels of the war-torn economy moving, the movement of Bangladeshi migrant workers to the countries of the Middle East started from 1976 with the aim of labor migration. According to the information of the Ministry of Finance, currently more than 1.25 crore people from this country are working in more than 174 countries and continue to enrich the country's economy. Most of them are working in Middle East countries.

In the last completed financial year 2023-24, about 11,96,000 workers went abroad from Bangladesh against which remittances of $2,391.00 crore came. In the previous financial year 2022-23, about 11,38,000 workers went abroad from Bangladesh against which remittances of $2,161.70 crore came. Accordingly, even if the export of manpower increases, similarity remittances are not coming to the country. Hundi has been blamed for the recent decline in remittances, but the skill of trained workers is one of the reasons.

The United Nations Organization for Migration, IOM, on June 16, 2020 released a report on 'Migration, Family Remittances, Wealth and Skill Classification' in Bangladesh. The report presents findings from a survey of 1,000 remittance -dependent households in 2019 and qualitative discussions with key stakeholders. The survey found that high-skilled workers remit more money than low-skilled workers. As a result of efficiency gains, remittances increased to about $255 per month between 2009 and 2019.

How remittances are invested and saved depends on the migrant's skills. Skilled migrants request family members to invest foreign currency money as savings and unskilled migrants, on the other hand, spend their remittances mainly on loan repayments. Higher-skilled migrant workers are employed in better-paid jobs and send more remittances than low-skilled workers in the long run. Research shows that 98 percent of Bangladeshi migrant workers and remittance senders are men. About 12 percent of these migrant workers have never attended school and about 80 percent have studied up to secondary school.

Among the migrant workers surveyed, half (49 percent) worked as employees of an organization or company, and about one-quarter (26 percent) worked as laborers, including day-wage, part-time workers. Immigrant workers in this country remit less money or benefit less economically than skilled workers in other countries. Because the remittances of unskilled and low-skilled workers are much less than that of skilled workers. According to the report, remittances are mainly used to meet short-term needs and are rarely used to diversify assets or build financial resilience, further increasing household dependence on remittances. The low economic knowledge of expatriates and their families puts them in a precarious situation in terms of sustainable earnings, remittance management and wealth creation.

The recommendations that emerge from the study are, firstly, to invest in developing gender sensitive skills and build household economic knowledge and capacity to manage remittances. Second, invest in education and skills development so that low-skilled migrant workers can earn more and break the cycle of debt. Thirdly, steps must be taken to reduce vulnerability and support the path to financial independence to ensure better debt management and formalization of savings. Fourthly, policies should be adopted to promote women's economic inclusion so as to have a positive impact on all aspects of wealth creation and economic development, taking into account economic measurement and sustainable strategies. Finally, the study recommends forming partnerships to provide gender-sensitive economic education and mentoring to migrants and remittance recipients.

The number of expatriates is only increasing due to the large number of unskilled workers going abroad from Bangladesh through brokers. But labor-wise remittances are not increasing. Most of these unskilled workers come from poor communities in the villages. By tempting them in various ways, the middlemen are grabbing huge sums of money. Even if they work abroad, they cannot withdraw the money they went abroad with. The quality of workers in Bangladesh is very low in international standards.

If this situation cannot be changed, even if millions of workers go abroad, the remittance flow will not increase. If the quality is not fixed, the labor markets of the country may be lost. The value of unskilled or semi-skilled workers in the world labor market is gradually decreasing. On the other hand, the demand for skilled and trained manpower is increasing rapidly. Therefore, there is no alternative but to change the conventional education system in order to create employment abroad. We have to adapt our manpower to the needs and changes of manpower importing countries. For this, skilled and trained manpower is needed and only they can turn the wheel of remittance. For this reason, the government has to take planned steps in building skilled manpower to support development and boost up the remittances inflow.

The wrtier is a Banker & Columnist