On the first week of the year, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) presented a report on the state of Bangladesh economy. They highlighted a number of issues like macroeconomic indicators, investment, RMG sector, banking sector and finally migration. However, one point that they mentioned there in relation to migration created a big stir. It appeared in the headlines of all major newspapers.
Bangladeshi citizens working and living abroad are the biggest source of foreign currency and the biggest driver of our economy. It is a well known phenomenon that many people from Bangladesh migrate to other countries for livelihood.
A relatively less know fact is, there are several hundreds of thousand foreigners working in Bangladesh as well. Most of the people in Bangladesh are oblivious to this fact.
In this context, CPD highlighted that $3.7bn has been remitted out of Bangladesh to India in 2013, presumably by Indian expats working here. This is a newsworthy information, given the fact that $3.7bn is a significant amount in Bangladesh context, almost 15% of our country’s current forex reserve. The stir expectedly had the ripple effect in the social media with commentaries, suggestions flowing through.
If one critically observes the reaction to the news, there are two broad streams. One stream is sheer xenophobia, somewhat ultra nationalism – people just can not accept the fact that a large sum of money is earned by foreigners here and remitted to a foreign country.
The others are driven by the fear of competition in the local job market. Some of the commentaries were a medley of both, starting with competition and ending with nationalism.
Immigration has been a global hot topic in 2014. We have seen the immigration debate in the United States, the anti-immigration protests in Europe or in Singapore, Australia turning back immigrant ships.
In fact looking at the global picture, it appears, gone are the days when countries opened the doors and welcomed talents, people looking for a better life or people just in distress at their own home.
The reasons behind this anti-immigration sentiment varies across the world. Some are afraid of immigrants changing the social structure and feel that foreigners will stimulate a social conflict. Continental Europe is a perfect example of that. Many consider the economic burden the migrants will bring, e.g. Australia.
Fear of competition, and fear of losing one’s identity often triggers anti-immigration sentiments. Some analysts suggest that even the 2014 Hong Kong protests were also triggered by the fear of loosing its identity to mainland China, more than the strive for democracy.
Where do Bangladesh stand when we are not ready to accept foreigners working here, let alone remit precious foreign currency out of the country? Bangladesh is not really a popular destination for permanent immigration; so it will be safe to assume that the foreigners working here will eventually go back to their native place.
We can rule out the possibility of foreigners benefiting from our social security setup; or create a social tension. Being such a densely populated country we need more than a mass migration of foreigners from another country to lose our own identity or foreigners creating a social tension.
Furthermore, Bangladesh is renowned for its cheap labour. Then, the biggest question we need to ask ourselves: why does a business hire a more expensive resource from abroad and not a “cheap” local resource? Which business owner will be such ambivalent about cost-benefit?
Three factors contribute to any hiring decision for any business unit. The first factor is the skill and qualification of a candidate.
The second factor is obviously the cost. The rational components of a hiring decision is to strike the balance on these two factors.
The third factor is the non-rational component – the emotional factor. Often the third factor plays the pivotal role in any decision. It is the feel good factor behind the decision.
Coming back to the question of foreigners working in Bangladesh, most commentaries and suggestions that followed the news circled around enacting laws, enforcing the laws and forcing companies to hire locals.
While we strive for freedom of speech, freedom of choice, and freedom to choose the government and strive to evolve as a free, democratic society, enacting legislation to curtail the freedom to recruit the best resource is not something we should envision.
Rather, we should look deep into the factors and ensure that our local resources evolve to be the best choice for any recruiter.
Often, we make a sweeping statement that finding a qualified resource is not a problem in Bangladesh. Anyone who worked in human resources knows how untrue that is. Many a times a human resource manager struggles to get a right candidate for a job.
We do produce a huge number of graduates, but when it comes to skills it is a dire situation. The problem is even serious when the recruiter is a foreigner, unaware of the local education system. How does one compare a Bangladeshi educated graduate with a foreign educated graduate?
Accreditation and affiliation seem to be the least important goal for any public or private university of Bangladesh. Besides the fresh graduates, when it comes to skill development for mid level jobs, we have little infrastructure to enhance our skills once we have entered the workforce.
However, it is not all bad news, quite a number of public and private university graduates are talented and making marks in the workplace with their own calibre. In fact, hardly any graduate from these universities struggle to get a job in Bangladesh!
As we brace ourselves to become a middle income nation by the next decade, we need more graduates who can compete at the global marketplace. And our universities need to play their part to establish themselves and project the image of a genuine centre for quality education.
The continual education is something that needs a good focus. Our workforce need to keep themselves updated with new skills, enhance the knowledge base to remain relevant in the job market.
Few corporates focus on executive development, but it should be the goal of the employee to enhance him/herself, rather than being the goal of the business to train their staff. An alarming trend is brewing among the mid level executives in the country. They find themselves hitting a “glass ceiling” with little or no scope of career progression in the country.
Many of them migrate to other countries to discover that their skills are not relevant for global workplace. A few executive learning centres have come up in recent years, but almost all of them focus on a very niche segment of high end executives. The continual education should cover the entire workforce.
For example, I do not know what is the career path of a worker in a RMG industry. Probably she has completed her school or at least done some schooling, does she plan to get some formal education so that her skill improves, and may be someday become a supervisor or a manager?
The third factor – the feel good factor – is also of utmost importance. That is the reason we buy Apple or Samsung phones instead of a much cheaper phone of same capability or configuration. How do we make a recruiter feel good about a local candidate?
It has a lot to do with branding our resources. I have personally met recruiters who were surprised to know that there are engineering universities in Bangladesh. One good example we can follow is Philippines.
Ten years back, they were known around the world for maids and construction workers. Today Filipinos are biggest suppliers of junior / mid level workers across the globe. They have successfully taken the top position of call centre and back end processing business, surpassing India.
Any company planning to hire in Manila will never think of getting anyone from abroad for mid/junior level positions.
There is no reason for not supporting a legal framework to curb errant recruiters or foreigners working illegally. We must also have the capability to enforce any law we enact. However, any attempt to influence the business decision will be counter productive for the economic growth.
Rather, we should be focusing on improving the quality of our resources and enter a pursuit to keep our working cohort relevant for upgrades as the country upgrades to a middle income nation.