Disgraceful return: Gulf migration and shifting national narratives amid COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Several Asian countries that encourage international migration of labour call their emigrants ‘national heroes and heroines’ because of their contributions to foreign currency reserves and subsequent national development. However, the massive involuntary return amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the health risk associated with returning from virus-affected regions, such as the Gulf states, call the development narratives of migrants and migrant remittances into question. This study examines the experiences of Gulf return migrants in Bangladesh, focusing on their arrivals at the airport, their travels home, their receptions at the origin communities, their financial hardship upon return and the shifting development narratives in the origin country. The paper draws on primary data, collected through interviews of Gulf returnees in Bangladesh between 2020 and 2021. This study finds that the image of migrants as ‘national heroes’ is not only challenged during the pandemic but replaced almost overnight by a new one, such as ‘COVID-19 super-spreaders’. This research reports that migrants confront with unpleasant circumstances during their return migration process that render their return to their country of origin disgraceful. The paper stresses developing policy measures to protect involuntary returnees from victimisation and disgraceful circumstances.

KEYWORDS:

• Involuntary return migration
• Gulf region
• Bangladeshi migrants

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Remittances to reach US$630 billion in 2022, https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/05/11/remittances-to-reach-630-billion-in-2022-with-record-flows-into-ukraine

2 Estimated from data provided in KNOMAD, Retrieved on 6 June 2022: https://www.knomad.org/data/remittances

3 Retrieved on 6 June 2022: https://www.thedailystar.net/business/economy/news/bangladesh-7th-highest-remittance-recipient-wb-3022611

4 In the mainstream media in Bangladesh migrants are described as ‘remittance fighters’, https://www.thedailystar.net/views/opinion/news/the-tragedy-fallen-remittance-fighter-2967441

5 Sorkar, M. N. I (9 July 2020. COVID-19 Pandemic Profoundly Affects Bangladeshi Workers Abroad with Consequences for Origin Communities. Retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/covid-19-pandemic-profoundly-affects-bangladeshi-workers-abroad-consequences-origin.

6 Data on Overseas Employment and Remittances, 1976–2021, retrieved on 3 June 2022: http://www.old.bmet.gov.bd/BMET/viewStatReport.action?reportnumber=16

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15 Sorkar, M. N. I (09 July 2020. COVID-19 Pandemic Profoundly Affects Bangladeshi Workers Abroad with Consequences for Origin Communities. Retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/covid-19-pandemic-profoundly-affects-bangladeshi-workers-abroad-consequences-origin.

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