Centre for Social Research Report

The Centre for Social Research (CSR) recently released a report- “Gender dimensions of international migration from India and Bangladesh: Impact on the families left behind” on 5 August 2010. The report was based on the study of the socio-economic impact of migration on 1000 families from migration pockets of India and Bangladesh in 2009. In both these countries poverty, better pay packets, employer relocation, landlessness, abandonment/divorce, husband's premature death, education and children's dowry payment were the reasons that compelled people mostly women to migrate. Among the total number of people who migrated only a handfull used formal government migration channels while the majority relied on informal channels like ‘dalaals’ and agents. The study showed that in India, United Arab Emirates was the most favoured destination of male and female migrants, followed closely by Saudi Arabia. Whereas in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia was the most preferred, followed by UAE and Kuwait.