Proceedings of World Business Research Conference
11 - 13 June 2015, Hotel Novotel Xin Qiao, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-78-8
Exodus of Soldiers of Long Term Growth: Analysis of Highly
Skilled Worker Migration of Bangladesh
S M Saleh Reza*
Well-known as a labor intensive country, Bangladesh has been facing difficulty fostering
talent at home. Though unemployment is still haunting the labor force, Bangladesh has
been witnessing migration of skilled workers from its labor pool constantly With the
international surge of capital, goods, services and information, the market for the highly
skilled labor is developing and the developed countries have huge demand for this
particular type of labor. Bangladesh has been experiencing a mismatch between skills
demanded by the native companies and skills possessed by the university graduates.
Such incongruity has been plaguing the national human resource pool. A pool of highly
skilled labor is imperative to long term growth. This article aims to analyze the migration of
skilled and highly-skilled migration of human resources and its consequences on the
economy. The article suggests possible measures to retain its talents to develop a pool of
home-grown skilled labor force.
JEL Codes: J210, J240, J610, J680
1. Introduction
Bangladesh, a labor abundant country, is striving to enlist itself into block of the middleincome countries. Labor migration, an important feature of the current international economy,
is getting quite the attention from both academics and policymakers. Dependent mostly on
global immigration laws, the skilled worker migration has lured a number of professionals
from Bangladesh. Permanent migration of highly skilled professional is often deemed as
“brain drain” in traditional literature. In other words, such migration is also termed as brain
exodus, emigration of talent, exodus of talent, brain overflow etc. (Khadria, 2002).
Investment in human resource has significant impact on economy. The working population is
an important factor which dictates the performance of individuals, organizations and whole
economics(David Autor, 2003). Skilled human resources expedite technological and
organizational change, while on the other hand these changes fuel the use of human
resources. The acceleration of skill-biased technological change in the US at the end of the
20th Century was a response to the rapid increase in the supply of high-skilled workers in the
preceding decades (Acemoglu, 2002). Bangladesh is at crossroads in retaining highly skilled
labors which is very crucial for a developing economy. This paper will take into account the
crisis of permanent migration of highly skilled labors of Bangladesh and suggest some policy
options to address the challenge.
2. Literature Review
Skilled migration has been regarded as a threat to economic growth. Furthermore, skilled
migration has also been deemed as an impoverishing flight of human capital (Bhagwati,
1974). However, Mountford (1997), Stark and Wang (2002) and Beine et al. (2001) holds a
contrasting view about the effect of skilled migration. Literature suggests that, migration
_________________________________________________________________________
*S M Saleh Reza, Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Email: saleh1403@gmail.com
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Proceedings of World Business Research Conference
11 - 13 June 2015, Hotel Novotel Xin Qiao, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-78-8
rates vary by skills and by sending country. It is observed that less developed countries have
the highest brain drain rates and in most cases, skilled migration has been on rise over the
1990-2000 decade (Docquier and Marfouk, 2004). Highly skilled labor can be defined from
different benchmarks like education, wage or occupation level. There is no generally
accepted definition of highly skilled labor. This paper will take into account the definition by
education or occupation. For example, generally a migrant with a university degree is termed
as highly skilled. But, if we look into the skilled worker migration of countries like Australia
and Canada, we can see there are different criteria’s to qualify as a skilled migrant. For
instance, Australia has a skilled occupation listi which requires the migrants to qualify a
handful of criterion set by the authority which matches the list. Similarly, Canada has
launched an “Express Entryii” program which requires a foreign skilled worker to meet a set
of conditions to be accepted as a migrant. The Express entry program states that skills, work
experience, language ability, education are some primary filters to select a candidate for the
expressed entry program. The program requires the applicants to have at least an
undergraduate degree from an accredited university to be eligible under the criteria’s set by
the authority. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report titled “High university enrolment,
low graduate employment” draws a grim picture of higher education vis-à-vis employment
(The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2014). The report concludes that higher education does not
teach how to think independently and meet job market requirements. Furthermore,
secondary education produces a huge number of university admission seekers, mostly
devoid of basic knowledge, who do not gain much knowledge from higher education. Thus,
47% of the Bangladeshi graduates remain unemployed.
3. Objective and Methodology
The main objective of the paper is to assess the impact of permanent migration of highly
skilled labors in the national economy of Bangladesh. Permanent migration is adding fuel to
the national human resource crisis in Bangladesh. This article analyzes the determinants of
permanent migration and suggests necessary measures to combat the challenge.
The paper is exploratory in nature. Secondary data, gleaned from government archive,
various journal article, website etc. have been used to infer conclusions on permanent
migration of highly skilled labors. The paper takes the broad definition of highly skilled labor
as who has tertiary education and work experience. This paper will also use the migration of
highly skilled labor and brain-drain interchangeably.
4. The Findings
Bangladesh Labor Force Survey Report 2010 states that Bangladesh comprises of 56.7
Million economically active population. The youth labor force (aged between 15-29 years)
consists of 13.2 million. While the economy is suffering from a 4.5% unemployment rate,
there is still prevalence of underemployment in the economy. Underemployment is defined
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Proceedings of World Business Research Conference
11 - 13 June 2015, Hotel Novotel Xin Qiao, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-78-8
as the when employed persons have not attained their full employment level in the sense of
the Employment Policy Convention adopted by the International Labor Conference in 1964.
Developed countries around the globe has lured skilled professionals from the developing
counties. A handful of countries now have skilled migration program which attracts skilled
professionals from the developing countries. Canada is the pioneer country to introduce a
point system to assess highly educated and skilled young individuals in 1967. In 1989,
Australia followed the footsteps of Canada and subsequently, New Zealand followed suit in
1991. British parliament was presented with a detailed plan on how to implement a pointsbased immigration system. Engineers, university teachers, doctors, business professionals
from Bangladesh are showing keen interest to migrate to these countries.
A diverse range of factors motivate skilled migrants’ to move. An article in “The Migration
Policy Website” (Alex Glennie, 2010) draw out five common factors: 1) Wages, 2)
Employment, 3) Professional development, 4) Networks, 5) Socioeconomic and political
conditions in countries of origin. Depending on the skill and profession of the migrant, the
priority of these factor varies from person to person.
In a developing country like Bangladesh, education is highly subsidized. When the
permanent migration of highly skilled workers occurs, it incurs enormous loss for the
economy both in terms of time and money (LaPorte, 2005). The catalysts of growth like
international trade, foreign direct investment, technology adoption and diffusion etc. are
linked to the readiness of number of highly skilled professionals. Bangladesh suffers from an
inadequate number of highly skilled professional.
The pool of highly-skilled labor in Bangladesh is not inadequate. Bangladesh businesses are
not diversified and the country tends to follow other countries’ technology and ideas. There is
an increasing need to technology assimilation and adoption to sustain the growth
momentum. A holistic approach towards technology adoption and innovation management
must be taken equip the human capital of Bangladesh with necessary skillsets.
5. Summary and Conclusions
To adopt proper policy measures, the major thing Bangladesh needs to do is create an
integrated database with the collaboration of ministries, educational institutes, employers,
training centers and other stake holders. This is necessary because there is considerable
knowledge gaps regarding the impact and data availability of migration of highly skilled labor.
An integrated database system will enable the policy makers to devise aptly targeted
policies. For example, the Finance Department of University of Dhaka will have an online
database of the students graduating each year. This will help both the employee and
employers to “search and match” appropriate candidate. Again, government can collaborate
with the embassies of different countries to trace the migration pattern of the labors.
Government has different institutions to facilitate manpower export. These institutions can
work in integrated way to promote overall employment scenario of the country.
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Proceedings of World Business Research Conference
11 - 13 June 2015, Hotel Novotel Xin Qiao, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-78-8
Established in 1976, Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) is an attached
body of the Ministry of Manpower Development and Social Welfare with specific purpose of
meeting the manpower requirement of the country and for export of manpower as well.
BMET is involved in overall planning and implementation of the strategies for proper
utilization of manpower of the country.
On the other hand, Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) is
affiliated with the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI),
the apex body on Trade & Industry, with a view to catering the needs of the licensed
recruiting agencies who are working to promote manpower in foreign market after imparting
necessary training.
Operating since 1984, Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL) is
the only "State owned" Manpower exporting Company in Bangladesh. BOESL's main
objective is to provide Right person for Right job" to valued foreign Employer. The main
purpose of creating this company is to provide honest, efficient and quick services to the
valued foreign employers in the field of recruitment and deployment of manpower with the full
satisfaction of the foreign employers.
Government’s ministry of labor and employment can coordinate with the different institutes to
minimize the existing gap in labor market of Bangladesh to address the unemployment
problem. As far as the highly skilled labor migration is concerned, the government must
initiate programs to retain them. But, before that government must have a comprehensive
understanding of the reasons of migration of highly skilled labors. Currently, there is no
thorough research in this regard.
Bangladesh businesses are not diversified and the country tends to follow other countries’
technology and ideas. There is an increasing need to technology assimilation and adoption
to sustain the growth momentum. A holistic approach towards technology adoption and
innovation management must be taken equip the human capital of Bangladesh with
necessary skillsets.
In this age of technology, Bangladesh still has miles to go to in technology adoption.
Insufficient incentive for research also contributes to the skilled human capital flight of the
country. Bangladesh is lagging behind in the research and development (R&D) sector and
technological advancement. It is not that there is no talent available but actually there is a
huge pool of talented and brilliant people. The problem is lack of encouragement, lack of
capital availability to these people and above all the political mess.
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Proceedings of World Business Research Conference
11 - 13 June 2015, Hotel Novotel Xin Qiao, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-78-8
Technology is one of the most momentous drivers of economic growth. Bangladesh needs to
focus on the enrolment of scientists and engineers at tertiary level and ensure top-notch
education for them. The country lacks proper incentive to research which contributes to the
decreasing number of home-grown scientists and leaders. Furthermore, investment in
research and development (R&D) must be given priority to integrate development efforts.
Bangladesh must invest more on human resources and must learn and act to retain them.
Knowledge, innovation and creativity are key to long term sustainable economic growth and
also economic development. Highly skilled human resources will not only give the
international edge in business. These skilled resources will help to shape the entire country.
They will make up a good government and a civil and knowledgeable society. Advancements
in science and philosophy will facilitate businesses. The highly skilled migrants’ labors are
soldiers of long term growth and their exodus is a huge loss to the country and hence their
outflow must be restricted.
References
Acemoglu, D. 2002, Technical Change, Inequality, and The Labor Market. Journal of
Economic Literature, 7-72.
Beine, M., F. Docquier and H. Rapoport 2001, “Brain drain and economic growth: theory and
evidence”, Journal of Development Economics 64, 275-289.
Bhagwati, J., & Hamada, K. 1974, The brain drain, international integration of markets for
professionals and unemployment: a theoretical analysis. Journal of Development Economics,
1(1), 19-42.
Chappell, L., & Glennie, A. 2010, Show Me the Money (and Opportunity): Why Skilled People
Leave Home—and Why They Sometimes Return. Institute for Public Policy Research.
David Autor, F. L. 2003, The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical
Exploration. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1279-1334.
Docquier, F., & Marfouk, A. 2004, Measuring the international mobility of skilled workers
(1990-2000): release 1.0. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, (3381).
LaPorte, S. D. 2005, Brain drain from developing countries: how can brain drain be converted
into wisdom gain? Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine , 487-491.
Mountford, A. 1997, Can a brain drain be good for growth in the source economy? Journal of
development economics, 53(2), 287-303.
Stark, O. and Y. Wang 2002, “Inducing human capital formation: migration as a substitute for
subsidies”, Journal of Public Economics 86, 29-46.
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Proceedings of World Business Research Conference
11 - 13 June 2015, Hotel Novotel Xin Qiao, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-78-8
The Economist Intelligence Unit. (2014). High university enrolment, low graduate
employment. London: The Economist Intelligence Unit.
Appendix
i
The Skilled Occupation List comprises of various professions which can viewed from
https://www.immi.gov.au/Work/Pages/skilled-occupations-lists/sol.aspx
ii
Details
of
the
Express
Entry
program
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/apply-who.asp
can
be
found
on
6