Magfurul Hasan Abbasi-
Bangladesh has a reputation for manpower supply to overseas countries. Right now, according to the data of 2023 around 15 million people work overseas across the world in 176 countries approximately (Banglatribune, 2023). As many as 40,00,00 workers leave Bangladesh every year for overseas work (ILO, 2023). Although it was difficult to cite any fully credible sources, the principal destinations of these 176 countries are primarily the Gulf or the Middle East countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar; Asian countries like Malaysia and Singapore, European countries like the United Kingdom, and currently growing popular ones like Italy, Romania and so on. Australia is and can be a potential destination for Bangladeshi migrant workers during the running and upcoming decades. This article investigates the present status of Bangladesh as to migrant export to Australia, as well as the existing and future opportunities.
Bangladesh can bask in the glory that it has been the 6th largest migrant-sending country in the globe (The Business Standard, 2019). The demographic dividend of ours is likely to capitalize on the existing opportunities of this manpower exports. Presently, about 45% of Bangladesh’s total population age under 24 years, and 70% of the total population is within 40 years of age (UNDESA, 2019; Zaman and Sarker, 2021). Bangladesh, as a nation, can reap the wholesome benefit, and enjoy the positive consequences of this demographic dividend until 2050 (Farid and Mostari, 2022).
Bangladesh’s manpower export trend in recent years once again depicts our annual manpower supply mainly centered around the Gulf countries with few other Asian counterparts. “Saudi Arabia is the top destination for Bangladeshi migrants, followed by Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, Jordan, and Qatar” (The Business Standard, 2022).
Australian Labour Market Status:
Australia is a vast country of 7,69,2024 km2 and is the 6th largest country of the globe (Geoscience Australia, 2023). Contrastively, Australia has a small population of just over 26.5 million (Worldometer, 2023); signifying its immense possibility to receive both the immigrants and the migrant workers. Despite some critical lowering curve in employment due to COVID-19, the contemporary information about labor market stabilization; even it signals that Australia is in a somewhat critical shortage of workers, mostly the skilled ones, which the Australian government aims to fulfill with the migrant workers. Within two years Australia is aiming to take 0.2 to 0.5 million migrant workers into their domestic market. One mentionable piece of information shared in this regard Australian labor market is in huge demand for some comparatively sophisticated technical professions like civil engineers, doctors, and others. Australia also has a substantial shortage of care work and other equivalent jobs (Coates, Wiltshire, Reysenbach, 2022). ABC News (2022) reports that during the tenure of 2022-2027, Australia will need workers the most for the 10 following fields: construction managers, civil engineering professionals, pre-primary school teachers, registered nurses, ICT business and system analysts, software and application programmers, engineers, electricians, chefs, child carers, and aged and disability carers; most of which may be fulfilled through foreign workers supply, as also confessed by the running premier of Australia, Anthony Albanese.
Why Australia:
Australia is not merely an immigrant-receiving country, but it places itself as one of the top-grade destinations in terms of wages, job security, work environment, high chance of citizenship in later years, and so on. According to the data of IOM (2019), migrant Bangladeshi workers earn around 203 USD per month on average, albeit there is a certain wage gap between the skilled and unskilled ones (Siddiqi and Farabi, 2021). But, in Australia to be specific, the minimum average entry-level salary is 1217 USD per month (Time Doctor, 2023).
One thing to highlight is that Australia usually doesn’t accept unskilled workers in their job market saving a few exceptions from other Oceanian countries. Since Australia is a developed and civilized country, expectant people can apply for citizenship of Australia having lived there for uninterrupted four years; so, there is also the allurement of a better life which interests a lot of youth across the globe. Australia has world-class universities which provide quality education to the international students. This has been recently making Australia one of the hubs of international students in the present years. English, being the first and official or formal language, and also the informal means of communication, adds to the advantage of the migrants and international students who know English or have basic schooling in English.
Small entrepreneurship in Australia or negotiating the bilateral trade between Australia and the migrant’s home country is another factor to which the immigrants get attracted. For example, Bangladesh has a gradually increasing trade with Australia. The Bangladeshi migrants living in Australia can boost trade by supporting government initiatives. All these things are making Australia globally growingly popular for international migrants.
How Bangladesh Can Benefit:
Now, how Bangladesh can benefit from the scenario? Bangladesh, in a planned way, may capitalize on the demographic dividend we have discussed in the opening paragraph. Manpower export can surely be a central key to this capitalization, and Australia can be a principal focus in that. The condition is that we need to improve the skill base of our migrant workers. The technical training centers both in the public and private capacities need to concentrate on that. For a developing country like Bangladesh foreign exchange is of extreme importance, shortage of which has recently been a definite concern for us. Skilled workers can significantly boost the foreign exchange sent through overseas employment, and also the image of our nation. Next, Bangladesh is sending a growing number of international students every year globally mostly in Europe and North America. Notably, Australia also has 38 universities placed in the QS World Rankings, 2024 (Callaghan, 2023) that can be thought about more seriously. To avail maximum congenial benefit the Bangladesh government may look for a signed MoU with the leading Australian universities, so that our students can more easily accustom themselves to the Australian workforce, and may thereby establish longer-lasting ties with the Australian economy and culture.
Working holiday visas in Australia could be the proper window for Bangladesh youth who want to test their fortune. Under this visa, people within 30 years of age can stay in Australia for one year with permission for short-term work that can be extended later on (Philips, 2016). The person needs not necessarily be a skilled worker to meet the visa requirement. But unfortunately, Bangladesh is not a member state that can enjoy a working holiday visa in Australia. The government of Bangladesh can take that into proper concern to avail the opportunity.
Way Forward:
Still, we may be nationally focusing on the Middle East or European market of labor. But the Middle Eastern markets provide us with lower leverage, and the European markets are firstly difficult to enter, and secondly bit saturated for the low-skill working force like ours. In the Middle East and most of Europe there are also drastic language barriers, but in this case, Australia must be much more comfortable for the Bangladeshi average youth, since Bangladesh provides compulsory English knowledge up to the twelfth class.
We indeed need to think to catch the Australian labor market more holistically as the colossal way of opportunity blinks through this. The youths, the migrant workers, and the Bangladesh international students, at the individual levels can think about Australia seriously before making their decision. The government of Bangladesh, the private sector, the Bangladeshi communities living in Australia, and the educational institutions including our universities need to be more focused to grab this huge and luminous window of opportunity.
Magfurul Hasan Abbasi is the Senior Assistant Secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Employment
