Labour migration from Bangladesh to Lebanon: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Globalization along with its tremendous opportunities for international migration brings forth many new challenges to the migration management. In order to cope with the new challenges in global migration process all relevant principal actors i.e. sending countries, receiving countries and international community must work in collaboration. Bangladesh is highly dependent on labour migration. Except for a few special years, almost every year, the rate of migration from Bangladesh has been increasing. In the year 2016 alone a total of 757,731 Bangladeshi migrant workers migrated for overseas employments; and among them 15095 went to Lebanon. Despite various affirmative action being undertaken as regards to migration management in both Bangladesh and Lebanon, the Bangladesh migrant workers face enormous challenges in Lebanon. This study was formulated to examine the potential challenges and opportunities of the international migration of Bangladeshi workers to Lebanon. With that aim, the study examined the labor migration process of Bangladeshi migrant workers from Bangladesh to Lebanon; the legislative and administrative framework in both countries - Bangladesh and Lebanon on safeguarding the interest and rights of migrant workers; the social and economic losses of the migrant workers and families from migration alongside its benefits. At the same time, based on above mentioned studies and analysis, recommendations on different possible ways of decreasing the negative consequences of unsafe labor migration as well as of safeguarding the protection of Bangladeshi migrant workers have been solicited.