Women's migration abroad drops by 22% in past year
The participation of Bangladeshi women in overseas employment has decreased significantly, falling by 22 per cent in 2024 compared to the previous year.
Between January and November 2024, only 54,696 women workers went abroad, making up just 6.03 per cent of all migrants during this period. This marks the lowest level of women’s migration in a decade, excluding the Covid-19 years.
The findings were shared at a press conference titled “Dynamics of Labour Migration from Bangladesh 2024”, organised by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) at the National Press Club on Saturday. RMMRU, a prominent research organisation in the migration sector, releases such reports annually to assess trends in labour migration.
Key findings
Tasneem Siddiqui, founding chair of RMMRU, highlighted that women workers are increasingly discouraged from migrating due to uncertainty around securing decent work conditions abroad. According to RAMRU’s study, this has significantly impacted female participation in labour migration.
Saudi Arabia continued to be the top destination for Bangladeshi women workers, with 35,538 migrants heading there from January to November 2024.
Other countries receiving women workers included Jordan (2,124), Qatar, the UK, the UAE, Kuwait, Hong Kong, and Japan. However, the numbers migrating to destinations like Hong Kong and Japan remain negligible.
Overall migration trends
In total, 906,355 Bangladeshi workers, both men and women, went abroad for work during the first 11 months of 2024. This represents a 30.8 per cent decrease compared to the 1,305,453 migrants recorded in 2023. If the current trend continues, the total number of migrants for 2024 is projected to reach approximately 1 million by year’s end.
Call for improved data collection
Tasneem Siddiqui emphasised the need for comprehensive data on returnee workers, noting that while records exist for outbound migration from 1976 to 2024, there is no systematic mechanism to track how many workers return annually after completing their contracts.
She urged the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment and the Ministry of Home Affairs to collaborate in establishing a robust data collection system for returnees.
The declining participation of women in labour migration underscores the need for targeted policies to ensure safe, equitable, and sustainable opportunities for female workers abroad.
