two-third of the overall migration flow (where the remaining 10 percent is represented by
rural-rural migration and 24 percent by international migration) (see Afsar, 2000) .
traditionally, most economic migrants to internal urban areas are young males, but this
changed significantly with the recent increase in demand for female labour in the readymade
garment factories of Dhaka Khulna and Chittagong metropolitan areas. Remittances to rural
areas have represented a crucial source of income for consumption and to expand business in
agricultural products and construction materials. Remittances also helped to generate savings,
the major source of capital in Bangladesh, in the absence of institutional credit on easy terms.
Little studies are available on the migration patters of rural households in Bangladesh. It is
assumed that the extreme poor people are more likely to gradually migrate to other parts of
the country, passing through a period of temporary migration (Siddiqui, T. 2003). Some rural
people also migrate internationally13 but little data are available on the proportion of
international migrants from rural areas. It has been argued that international migration
typically generates sharply higher levels of remittances with respect to rural-rural or rural-
urban migration. Yet, in Bangladesh there are financial obligations to migrate abroad, which
include the cost of purchasing a visa, the airfare, and commission costs to the recruiting
agencies14 (Afsar et al. 2000).
4. Data and descriptive statistics15
The empirical analysis is based on a survey of 5062 rural and urban households from 8
villages in Chandina and Madhupur thanas in Bangladesh, conducted by the Institute of
Development Studies in 1994/95. The survey collected detailed information on household
characteristics, assets endowment, food production and non-farm activities. In each
household, information on migration of household’s members was gathered, including
13 Bangladesh exports contract labour mostly to Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian countries, Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong. The UK and US are the two main destination in the
West. Australia, Canada, Germany, France are also preferred countries for migration.
14 The recruitment process of migrant workers in Bangladesh is quite complex. A host of intermediaries, some of
which are official and formal, while other are dubious, dominate the whole process. The latter is mostly
privatised and, after the selection process, the recruitment agency organizes the visa, travel documentation , air
ticket and placement of workers in the receiving country against relatively high fees. Recently the proliferation
of recruitment agencies has lowered the agency costs.
15 A more detailed description of the data set is in Mendola 2003. This holds for figures on HYVs characteristics
and productivity differentials as well.