Return migration of highly skilled professionals in Bangladesh: a study on private sector professionals returning home

Abstract

In the early 1970s, Bangladesh used its population to its advantage as a major migrant labour force. There have been numerous studies conducted on lesser skilled migrant workers which concern topics related to their departure through formal government institutions, livelihood conditions in their host countries and the lifestyle conditions of their family back home. Unfortunately, studies on return migration in Bangladesh have been a topic outside of mainstream migration discourse. Most of the available reports on return migration have shed light on the lesser skilled due to their massive population. This resulted in a profound limit to comprehensive studies on the highly skilled migrant counterparts. Although existing papers have covered the return of academic professionals and provided an overview of highly skilled migrants; these papers do not reflect the portion of returnees (i.e. private sector professionals) who may simply return and seek employment opportunities unless they belong to a particular social network. In this context, this thesis focuses on the return of private sector professionals and their overall social position as senior returnees in Bangladesh. Due to the evident lack of sufficient research in the field of return migration, particularly of highly skilled professionals, this paper took an exploratory and qualitative approach by referring to primary data collected from local migratory research units along with international migratory and global labour organizations. This study obtained its primary objectives through the narrative analysis of twelve in-person interviews followed by one Key Informant Interview (KII) with a local migratory expert. The findings of this research indicate that most private sector professionals return due to factors such as updated national policies which seek to advantage locals of the country of employment, unforeseen circumstances such as the corona virus pandemic and lastly, a rare but personal desire to retire. To analyse the aforementioned findings, theories of George Gmelch and Jean-Pierre Cassarino on return migration have been employed for the conceptual understanding of a migrant’s decision to return home. As a result, the following thesis contributes to not only the existing return migration discourse but also creates an intellectual scope surrounding the highly skilled professional migrants of Bangladesh, followed by the potential for new reintegration policies to generate positive attraction towards homecoming, which will facilitate a continuous migratory cycle in Bangladesh.