Chapter 6
Gendered Use of Remittances: The United Arab Emirates–Bangladesh Remittance Corridor MD MIZANUR RAHMAN AND DANIÈLE BÉLANGER
The oil crisis of caused a shift of migration destinations from Europe to the Gulf countries, and eventually the Gulf countries became large recipients of foreign workers, ending the era of guest worker immigration to Europe (Ambrosetti 2009). The Asian financial crisis that started in Thailand in 1997 and spread quickly to other Southeast and East Asian countries affected the labor markets severely, leading to a halt on new hiring of migrant workers and the deportation of existing migrant workers from almost all affected countries in the region. By the end of 1998, it was estimated that 933,000 migrant workers were expelled or laid off in the migrant-receiving countries of East and Southeast Asia (Rahman 1999: 4). Temporary labor migration forms a large component of intraregional labor migration in Asia. The primary motivation for such migration is often economic. In this type of labor migration, migrants are not allowed to settle in destination countries for the long term; thus families live under “transnationally split” conditions, with the nonmigrating family members “left behind” (Piper 2005; Yeoh, Graham, and Boyle 2002). Men have always moved beyond national borders for work; now women are choosing to do the same. More and more women migrate independently to realize their own aspirations
The authors wish to thank the International Organization for Migration (IOM)–Dhaka, Bangladesh, for financing this study in the United Arab Emirates. Special thanks go to Rabab Fatima, Regional Representative, IOM-Dhaka; Samiha Huda and Disha Sonata Faruque, also of IOM-Dhaka, provided support and were a joy to work with.
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