Migration Dialogue provides timely, factual and nonpartisan information and analysis of international migration issues through five major activities: the newsletters Migration News and Rural Migration News, Changing Face and other Research & Seminars, and the Sloan West Coast Program on Science and Engineering Workers.
Contact us at migrant@primal.ucdavis.edu.
Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi government in December 2009 announced plans to register the 50,000 to 60,000 subagents who recruit migrant workers. Some 800 licensed recruiters receive job orders from foreign employers, and most rely on village-based subagents known as dalals to find migrants to fill the foreign jobs. The subagents charge the migrants they recruit 10,000 to 60,000 taka ($150 to $875) for their services; registration of subagents aims to reduce and standardize their fees.
Some 875,000 Bangladeshis were deployed in 2008, but the number of migrants going abroad is expected to drop to fewer than 500,000 in 2009, prompting a quest for new markets, including Iraq and Libya. Malaysia imposed a ban on new entries of Bangladeshis in March 2009 after cancelling the work permits of 55,000 who were due to arrive, the fourth Malaysian ban on Bangladeshi migrant workers since 1996. Due to the recession, another 68,000 Bangladeshis abroad were sent home in the first 11 months of 2009 before completing their contracts.
In November 2009, Bangladesh announced that its citizens could migrate to Iraq to fill jobs if recruiters satisfied a 16-point list, including minimum two-year contracts, maximum fees of 52,000 taka ($755), and recruiters dealing directly with employers in Iraq. Bangladeshi migrants are expected to earn $300 a month in Iraq.
Migration News is produced with the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacAurther Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and UCB Institute of European Studies. A paper edition is available by mail for $30 domestic and $50 foreign for one year and $55 and $95 for two years. Make checks payable to Migration Dialogue and send to
Philip Martin, Department of Ag and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis, California 95616 USA.
Rural Migration News is produced with the support of the Colcom, Farm, and Giannini Foundations, and the UCD Gifford Center for Population Studies. A paper edition is available by mail for $30 domestic and $50 foreign for one year and $55 and $95 for two-years. Make checks payable to Migration Dialogue and send to
Philip Martin, Department of Ag and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis, California 95616 USA.
This network of researchers hosts seminars on labor and immigration issues affecting science and engineering workers, compiles and distributes information on these issues, and cooperates closely with the NBER's SEWP.
The Changing Face project assesses the effects of immigrant farm workers on agriculture and agricultural communities.
Include Opinion Leader Seminars, the Comparative Immigration and Integration Program, and Transatlantic Migration Policy Issue seminars.
