DHAKA, Dec 02, 2021 (BSS) - Bangladesh has become the 8th largest
remittance-receiving country and the 6th largest migrant-sending country in
the world, according to the World Migration Report 2022.
The UN agency for International Organization for Migration (IOM) on
Wednesday launched its flagship World Migration Report 2022 which reveals a
dramatic increase in internal displacement due to disaster, conflict, and
violence at a time when global mobility ground to a halt due to Covid-19
travel restrictions.
The report focuses on developments in migration over the last two-year
period, with an emphasis on providing analysis that takes into account
historical and contemporary factors.
As per the report, there were around 281 million international migrants in
the world in 2020.
The report highlights that in 2020, 7.40 million Bangladeshi migrants lived
abroad. Despite living beyond the country's borders, Bangladesh's diaspora
has continued to play a key role in the country's development.
The World Bank estimates that the Bangladeshi population abroad sent home
over US$18 billion in 2019, with 73 per cent coming from those working in
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
These remittances account for over 6.0 per cent of GDP, representing the
country's second-largest source of foreign income.
The efforts by policymakers to encourage and facilitate the sending of
remittances have greatly aided the remittance landscape in Bangladesh.
The Central Bank of Bangladesh more than tripled the ceiling on its 2019
cash incentive scheme - whereby remittance beneficiaries receive a 2.0 per
cent bonus on transfers made using formal systems - up to $5,000.
Additionally, some commercial banks are providing an additional one per
cent incentive to increase the attractiveness of sending remittances even
more.
The number of air passengers globally dropped 60 per cent in 2020 to 1.8
billion (down from 4.5 billion in 2019) while at the same time internal
displacement due to disaster, conflict, and violence rose to 40.5 million (up
from 31.5 million in 2019).
According to the report, the number of international migrants has grown
from 84 million globally in 1970 to 281 million in 2020, although when global
population growth is factored in, the proportion of international migrants
has only inched up from 2.3 per cent to 3.6 per cent of the world's
population.
The vast majority of people globally (96.4 per cent) reside in the country
in which they were born. Due to COVID-19, the number of international
migrants in 2020 was lower, by around 2 million, than it otherwise would have
been, the report added.