Department of Computer Science & Engineering

Assignment on:
Population migration in Bangladesh
Course Name: Bangladesh Studies
Course code: GED-263

Submitted date:
Submitted to:
08-08-2020
Name: Nazmul Hasan Polash
Designation: Lecturer
Department: Public Administration and
Governance Studies, Jatiya Kabi Kazi
Nazrul Islam University ,Trishal,
Mymensingh

Submitted By :
Name: Md Rakibul Islam.
Roll: 19102014.
Session: 2018-19.
Department: Computer Science &
Engineering,Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul
Islam University,Trishal , Mymensingh.
 Contents
1) Introduction.
2) What is population migration.
3) Types of factors for population migration .
4) Causes of population migration.
5) Impact of population migrat
6) Challenges of population migration.
7) Recommendation for solving prevalent problems.
8) Conclusion.
9) Reference.
 Population migration in Bangladesh

Introduction :

Bangladesh's history is a history of migration. People have been mobile in the Bengal delta
region for centuries. Patterns of contemporary labor migration go back to colonial times. Every
year, around 500.000 Bangladeshis leave the country to work abroad. Bangladesh's economy
depends on the emigrants' remittances. From our hunter-gatherer ancestors to our modern day
society people have migrated from one place to another for a better living . In respect to
Bangladesh migration may not have been the most prevalent act for the general population but it
still plays a large role in many parts of our life. From bringing in a stream of remittance to
making socio-political impacts as the migration of the rohingya population in our country
migration has impacted our country greatly.

What is population migration :

Migration is the population movement from one place or country to the other with the intention
of settling.The total number of immigrants is stated as the migration volume
or migration turnover, which is the total number of immigrants and emigrants in a given
area.This movement changes the population of a place. International migration is the movement
from one country to another.People who leave their country are said to emigrate. People who
move into another country are called immigrants. The movement of people into a country is
known as immigration.

Types of factors for population migration :

Many factors that influence migration are difficult to predict. While social, political and
economic developments are exceptionally difficult to predict precisely, judgements can be made
based upon current situations. Ecological disruption is easier to pre-empt as there is a large body
of scientific evidence to suggest that this factor will be a cause for concern in the near future.
Environmental modelling, as well as worsening food and water security in many countries,
shows that ecological issues are already beginning to present challenges globally. Ecological
factors have the potential to become an increasingly significant force influencing migration over
the 21st century.

Migrants themselves can be divided into two broad categories: humanitarian and economic.
Humanitarian migrants include asylum seekers and refugees. These individuals generally migrate
to countries geographically close to their country of origin. Over the past decade, Afghanistan
has been a major source of humanitarian emigrants, with Pakistan and Iran becoming their main
destination countries.1 Economic migrants, on the other hand, migrate in order to find
employment or improve their financial circumstances. In the past, these migrants have generally
moved from poorer to richer countries, however, recent evidence suggests that this is beginning
to change with increasing levels of south-south and circular migration being seen.
This paper explores some of the factors contributing to immigration and population movements.
Numerous domestic forces, known as push factors, can encourage individuals to leave their
home country. Simultaneously, conditions in foreign countries, known as pull factors, can also
influence their migratory destination. These determinants can be broadly divided into social,
political, economic and ecological factors.

There are many economic, social and physical reasons why people emigrate and they can usually
be classified into push and pull factors. What are push and pull factors?
1) Push factors are those associated with the area of origin.
2) Pull factors are those that are associated with the area of destination.
Now we will see what is pull and push factors.
Pull Factors:
1) The promise of a “better life”.
2) Better jobs.
3) Higher wages.
4) More jobs.

Push factors:
Economic push factors tend to be the exact reversal of the pull factors.so,we can say that pull
factor is way better than push factor.now, we will see that what is the criteria of push factor
1) Low wage.
2) Few jobs.
3) Overpopulation.
so, these are the two factors of population migration in Bangladesh and we can have a clear
conception about it.There are more factors like-

Socio-political Factors

Social push factors can include ethnic, religious, racial, and cultural persecution. Warfare, or the
threat of conflict, is also a major push factor. In the Australian context, most asylum seekers
arriving by boat in the last decade have come from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Sri Lanka. All of
these countries, apart from Iran, have undergone extremely destabilising conflicts in recent years.
On the other hand, while it is free of violent conflict, Iran has one of the worst human rights
records in the world leading many of its citizens to seek asylum outside of its borders.
The politicisation of religious and ethnic identities has the potential to cause significant levels of
conflict within states. Empirical evidence suggests that states undergoing a political transition
from authoritarian rule to democracy are at greater risk of instability and internal conflict. 2 Often
these states lack the ability to properly respond to social instability. Several states within the
Indian Ocean Region (IOR), including Burma, have recently begun to democratise while failing
to simultaneously develop a shared national identity capable of tying together the various groups
within their borders. In socially diverse states the potential for conflict may be greater than in
more homogenous or inclusive societies. The future level of migration from these countries is
wholly dependent upon the longevity and severity of any conflict that could arise from social
grievances.

Individuals migrating due to social or political conditions are more likely to do so as

humanitarian migrants. This will have an impact upon where they settle as some countries have
more liberal approaches to humanitarian migrants than others. In the first instance, these
individuals are likely to move to the nearest safe country that accepts asylum seekers. This does
not, however, prevent them from undertaking a second migration to a country that provides a
broader range of legal rights to asylum seekers and refugees.

Economic Factors

Economic factors relate to the labour standards of a country, its unemployment situation and the
overall health of its economy. If economic conditions are not favourable and appear to be at risk
of declining further, a greater number of individuals will probably emigrate to one with a better
economy. Often this will result in people moving from rural to urban areas while remaining
within the confines of their state borders. As the low- and middle-income countries of today
continue to develop and the high-income countries experience slower economic growth,
migration from the former could decline.

Economic migrants are drawn towards international migration because of the prospect of higher
wages, better employment opportunities and, often, a desire to escape the domestic social and
political situation of their home country. These migrants are most likely to come from middle-
income countries where the population is becoming increasingly well educated. Salaries and
wages, however, are likely to remain relatively low compared to those of individuals with a
similar educational background in other, higher-income countries. This disparity has the
potential to lead to some highly-skilled individuals from developing countries migrating to more
developed countries. This form of migration is known as south-north migration and has
historically been the main form of economic migration.

In south-north migration, individuals from developing countries moved to more developed

countries for work and sent remittances back to their country of origin. Over the past decade,
however, south-south migration has become increasingly common. In 2013, south-south
migration accounted for 36 per cent of all international migration while south-north movements
accounted for 35 per cent. According to the Migration Policy Institute, migration between
developing countries is built upon proximity, identity networks, income differentials and
seasonal migration. For these reasons, 80 per cent of south-south migration occurs between states
with contiguous borders where common cultural identities are likely to be found. 4 The increasing
prevalence of south-south economic migration is likely to continue as the barriers to migration
are lower than south-north migration. Migrants from the south are generally less skilled and
lower-educated than their counterparts from the north, making it difficult for them to migrate to
more developed countries. Additionally, since migration occurs over smaller geographical
distances it is potentially less disruptive to migrants and communities.

Technological advancement, both in communications and transport, in addition to the

liberalisation of labour markets, has the potential to increase the rate of circular migration. This
form of migration occurs when individuals migrate between an origin and a destination on
several separate occasions.5 Generally, economic forces motivate individuals to move to
countries where employment prospects are better before returning to their country of origin.
Studies have shown that circular migration can have positive development outcomes. Most
importantly, circular migrants are more likely to send larger remittances back to their country of
origin than those who permanently settle within their destination country. Furthermore, issues
relating to brain drain and a hollowing out of the labour force are largely averted. 6 Problems of
exploitation still remain, suggesting that efforts need to be made to ensure that standardised
regulations are adopted to protect the rights of circular migrants.
Economic migrants have a greater degree of choice in determining their destination than
humanitarian migrants. Many asylum seekers will flee to the nearest safe country that will accept
them whereas economic migrants will move to countries that either require their skills or have
better conditions than their country of origin. Pull factors within the destination country are
therefore more likely to influence the decision making process of economic migrants.

Ecological Factors

Of the ecological factors that push individuals to migrate, climate change is, arguably, the most
serious. Over the next decade, climate change has the potential to intensify the impacts of the
social, political and economic push factors described earlier in this paper. Even if individuals
affected by climate change move only short distances this has the potential to alter social,
political and economic dynamics. The possibility of social issues arising increases when tribal,
ethnic and religious groups that were historically separate are forced to intermingle due to
traditional lands no longer being able to support human settlement. Individuals engaged in
agriculture, for example, could be forced to find alternative forms of employment as their land is
no longer capable of producing or sustaining viable quantities of goods. Food and water prices
are likely to increase in parts of the region due to greater scarcity of these resources. These
burdens place additional strain upon the capacity of the state to ensure welfare for all and, in
some cases, maintain its stability.
The observable impacts of climate change are likely to become more apparent over the course of
the next decade. States must utilise this time to prepare for the increased migratory flows that
will be a consequence of the inevitable disruption that will occur over the next century. Climate
change will have an impact upon water resources, agriculture, food security, public health and, in
some instances, threaten the very existence of some states. The impacts of climate change will be
most apparent in developing countries which lack the wherewithal to adequately address, or
adapt to, the changing environment.

Food and water security are expected to become more salient issues over the coming decades.
The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report suggests that climate change
will have its largest impact upon food security by the middle of this century. Regions that can no
longer sustain agriculture are likely to experience rural to urban migration or, in some cases,
increased levels of international emigration. Another factor that can worsen food insecurity is
water security. Increasing water insecurity in parts of the IOR, especially, has the potential to
influence international migration.

Individuals who are severely impacted by changing ecological conditions may choose to migrate
from their home state in search of more favourable environmental conditions elsewhere. Those
who choose to emigrate due to more frequent or more destructive natural disasters may identify
as climate refugees and seek asylum in other countries less affected by climatic extremes.
Climate refugees are defined as ‘people who have to leave their habitats immediately or in the
near future, because of sudden or gradual alterations in their natural environment related to at
least one of three impacts of climate change: sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and drought
and water scarcity.’7 This definition, however, has no standing in international refugee law and
organisations, including the United Nations, prefer to use the term environmental migrant.
Fearing that it is now too late to take action to prevent climate change the international
community is preparing measures for adaptation. Environmental migration is one such
adaptation measure that must be taken into greater consideration by the international community.

Causes of population migration :

Human migration is the movement of people from one place to another with the intention of
settling in the new location. When large numbers of people relocate, historians ask questions
about why these people moved and what impacts their movements had.

Broadly speaking, there are two categories of factors that influence people’s decisions to
migrate. Push factors occur where someone is currently living and make continuing to live there
less attractive. A push factor could be political unrest, a lack of job opportunities, or
overcrowding. Pull factors occur in a potential destination and make it an attractive place to
migrate to. A pull factor could be better job opportunities or having relatives or friends who have
already moved to this location.

Population migration is a complex issue with multiple factors and variants playing
interdependent roles. From Push factors as Regional instability as warfare , oppression and
natural disasters to pull factors as better lifestyle, social equality and better education all combine
and act together causing population migration. Of course these causes vary greatly from region
to region and these even vary with time.

There are two specific types of migration, internal and external migration happens in Bangladesh
for different reasons in Bangladesh. Although the economy plays the main role in both cases.
Internal migration or migration that takes place within the county happens in bangladesh mostly
for job search and better economic opportunity. Most of these migrations take place in regions
with low income or in some cases in areas that are affected by natural disasters frequently,
especially natural disasters such as river erosion or floods. Even though this kind of migration
and reasons existed for a long time in our country the recent rise in industries such as the
garment industry which requires mass manpower and has job openings for people with relatively
low skill and education level has increased this phenomenon in recent times.
External migration in Bangladesh also happens at a large number. These migrations are also
majorly dependent on economic reasons as job opportunity and financial income. As most of the
immigrants from our country migrates as workers and labourers. Even though small in numbers
but a portion of these immigrants also migrate for higher study and settle down in different
countrie.

There also has been some external migration in our country which is unprecedented in its history
as a large number of the rohingya population has taken refuge in our land. This migration has
occurred due to Mynmars hostility towards the rohingyas.

Impact of population migration :

Bangladesh's history is a history of migration. People have been mobile in the Bengal delta
region for centuries. Patterns of contemporary labor migration go back to colonial times. Every
year, around 500.000 Bangladeshis leave the country to work abroad. Bangladesh's economy
depends on the emigrants' remittances.

After the Second World War, the United Kingdom faced labor shortages and therefore began to
attract labor migrants of the Commonwealth states. Young men from Bangladesh, in particular
from the Sylhet region, thus left for the UK, mostly settled in London, and contributed to
meeting the increasing demand for cheap labor. This initiated chain migration of further workers
and family members to the UK in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and led to close transnational
connections between Bangladesh and the UK. The officially recorded flow of people from East
Pakistan to international destinations was, however, still quite small. The increasing outward
orientation of Bangladeshis after national independence in 1971 as well as the 1973 oil boom and
thus an increasing need for cheap labor in the Middle East then led to a rapid growth of
international labor migration from Bangladesh.In 1976, only 6,000 Bangladeshis left to work
abroad. Since then, the number of both temporary expatriate workers and permanent out-
migrants has increased. Between 1990 and 1995, 1.2 million Bangladeshis left the country to live
and work abroad. Out-migration increased to almost three million between 2005 and 2010.

According to the National Population and Housing Census, 2.8 million Bangladeshi household
members were living abroad in 2011. 95 percent of them were men. The fact that these migrants
are still considered "household members" and not "emigrants" indicates the temporary nature of
these labor movements. The survey shows that more than 500,000 migrant workers had returned
home between 2006 and 2011, a time period in which 3.5 million had left the nation[3]. In 2014,
426,000 people migrated to work in another country – most often on temporary labor contracts.

The states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are the most important destinations for
Bangladeshi laborers. From 1980 to 2010, the number of migrants who annually left for work in
the Gulf States increased tenfold from 25,000 to more than 250,000 per year[4]. From 2005 to
2010 alone, the Gulf States attracted more than 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers, that is 52
percent of all international movements from Bangladesh. Most of them migrated to the United
Arab Emirates (UAE) (647,000), Saudi Arabia (523,000), and Qatar (154,000) . Since the United
Arab Emirates introduced further restrictions for male labor migrants in 2012, the number of
male Bangladeshi workers going there decreased rapidly, while the number of female labor
migrants to the UAE quadrupled. Both male and female labor migration to Oman and Qatar
increased rapidly in recent years. These two states were the two most important destinations for
short-contract migrant workers from Bangladesh in 2014.

Migration is becoming a very important subject for the life of cities. Many opportunities and
attraction of big cities pull large numbers of people to big cities. Migration can have positive as well
as negative effects on the life of the migrants.

Positive Impact:

1) Unemployment  is reduced and people get better job opportunities.

2) Migration helps in improving the quality of life of people.

3) It helps to improve social life of people as they learn about new culture, customs, and
languages which help to improve brotherhood among people.
 4) Migration of skilled workers leads to a greater economic growth of the region.

5) Children get better opportunities for higher education.

6) The population density  is reduced and the birth rate decreases

Negative Impact:

1) The loss of a person from rural areas, impact on the level of output and development of rural
areas.
2) The influx of workers in urban areas increases competition for the job, houses, school
facilities etc.
3) Having large population puts too much pressure on  everything .
4) It is difficult for a villager to survive in urban areas because in urban areas there is
no natural environment and pure air. They have to pay for each and everything.
5) Migration changes the population of a place , therefore, the distribution of the
population is uneven in Bangladesh.
6) Many migrants are completely illiterate and uneducated , therefore, they are not only
unfit for most jobs, but also lack basic knowledge and life skills.
7) Poverty makes them unable to live a normal and healthy life.
8) Children growing up in poverty have no access to proper nutrition, education or health.
9) Migration increased the slum areas in cities which increase many problems such as
unhygienic conditions, crime, pollution etc.
10) Sometimes migrants are exploited.
11) Migration is one of the main causes of increasing nuclear family where children grow up
without a wider family circle.
so now,we have a clear conception about positive and negative impacts of population migration
in Bangladesh.

Challenges of population migration :

Population migration can put a country in many challenges. The primary problems that arise in
Bangladesh population migration are brain drain and lack of a proper workforce. Sometimes it
causes cultural issues too. The most recent problem that has occurred in our country has been
due to the migration of a large number of refuge in our country. The migration has already
caused the destruction of forests and an influx in the population of rohingya in our country.
These Rohingya people are mostly uneducated and their poverty has given rise to criminal
activities such as petty theft to drug supply in the areas.

In an ideal world, there would be few migration barriers, and little unwanted migration. For most
of human history, there were few governmental barriers to migration—instead, limited
communication and transportation networks as well as rules that tied serfs were tied to the land
limited human mobility mobility. There was migration from one place to another in response to
famine, war, and displacement in traditional economies, and all three combined to encourage the
migration of 60 million Europeans to the Americas in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

During the 20th century, the world’s population increased fourfold, and sharply different rates of
population and economic growth emerged between the world’s nation states, whose number
quadrupled to about 200 in the 20th century.2 Most nation states have more workers than formal-
sector jobs, and especially young people who know that wages are 10 or 20, times higher in
another country are eager to cross national borders, putting international migration “close to the
center of global problems.” If people were goods, the solution to different wage and employment
levels would be obvious: encourage the transfer of “surplus” people from poorer to richer nation
states, which should benefit individuals whose incomes rise, increase global GDP, and promote
convergence in wages and opportunities between sending and receiving areas that eventually
reduces migration pressures. If we knew how to ensure that economically motivated migrtion
assured convergence between areas, so that migration was truly the proverbial “free lunch”
among global challenges, lowering migration barriers would be the first among the global
challenges. However, we do not know how to ensure that economically motivated migration sets
in motion virtuous circles that yield convergence; there may also be cases of migration setting in
motion vicious circles that increases the motivation to migrate between areas. Thus, the
migration challenge is to ensure that the migration that occurs promotes convergence. We tackle
this challenge in three parts: explaining why the migration of professionals from developing to
developed countries may lead to divergence rather than convergence among participating nation
states unless there is some form of human capital replenishment from receiving to sending areas,
The problems which have been a source of major loss of Bangladesh due to population migration
in our country has been a brain drain or human capital flight. Human capital flight refers to the
emigration or immigration of individuals who have received advanced training at home .
Because economically stronger countries give higher pay and more benefits many skilled people
leave Bangladesh for a better life. However training these people to such skill levels often takes
much of our national resource and time. Also these people are also needed in our nation for
overall development.

Recommendation for solving prevalent problems :

1) Countries should promote stability and reduce the drivers of forced migration,
including by promoting resilience, thereby enabling individuals to make the
choice between staying or migrating.

2) The collection, analysis and use of data and information on, among other
things, demographics, cross-border movements, internal displacement,
diasporas, labor markets, seasonal trends, education and health is essential to
create policies based on facts, that weighs the benefits and risks of migration.
 3) Regional cooperation can help minimize the negative consequences of
migration and preserve its integrity. It can also contribute to regional and global
development goals by improving human capital through sustainable development
and ensuring longer-term economic growth.

so, these are the recommendetion of migration .

Conclusion :

Population migration has mostly been beneficial for Bangladesh. It’s now affecting our country
more than ever since the migration has only increased over the years in our country.
Even though it has been happening for quite some time, changing times call for adaptation in
national policy and economic structure to utilize our human resources better and control the
migration in our country better. We need to make sure that we don’t lose our brightest minds
while increasing the flow of remittance from international migration. Urban migration needs to
be also managed better for avoiding over centralization and high density population clustering.
With proper long term plans and adaptive measurement we can easily turn the population
migration as a beneficial phenomenon for Bangladesh.

Reference :

1, http://www.futuredirections.org.au/publication/factors-influencing-migration-and-population-
movements/
2. https://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/sites/default/files/cp-populationfinished_0.pdf
3. https://www.bpb.de/gesellschaft/migration/laenderprofile/216104/international-migration-
from-bangladesh
4. https://rosanjose.iom.int/site/en/blog/how-solve-migration-practical-guide