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Migration, debt and resource backwash: how sustainable is Bangladesh-Gulf circular migration?

Abstract This paper investigates international labour migration financing processes and related resource backwash – the flow of resources away from the migrant household which continue sometime after the initial migration event. Using customised survey data from four villages in Comilla and Chandpur districts, major migrant source regions in Southern Bangladesh, this paper assesses different dimensions of what is effectively a debt-financed migration strategy or resource backwash that accompany this process. The findings suggest that although migration has become an essential livelihood strategy for many households in rural Bangladesh, households deplete significant resources in terms of land and other precautionary assets in order to gain access to migration opportunities in the Gulf and emerging Asian countries. This paper shows that debt is a critical component of the migration system in Bangladesh, and the findings further suggest that although households adopt a migration strategy to counterbalance income uncertainty, the migration system itself creates extreme precarity, as households become riddled with migration related debt. Tragically it often takes the entire migration episode to service the debt. This argument has profound implications for the debate about migration’s role in supporting sustainable development.