Identifying migration phases for new strategy

Migration income has recently dipped and everyone is panicking as expected. Most policy makers and commoners rarely think about migration as an issue until it pinches their forex in the wallet. It's basically seen as a cash- cow sector. And like all such relationships never taken seriously until a crisis rises. 

International migration has several aspects which also reflect their status in society. Migrants are not employees of a rich person like the RMG workers and on their own. So there are no social elite stakeholders like the RMG owners. It's a success story which the formal world doesn't internally recognize. 

This also applies to the governance construct which has been set up by the government of Bangladesh (GOB) in partnership with the IOM without stakeholder and decision making participation of the migrants belonging to the informal /unofficial world. 

Given the limited efficiency capacity of official agencies and the formal sector, the governance model has had limited application. This is only to be expected. GOB interventions aren't generally as useful as expected. But the other reason for its limitation is more specific. The Migration Governance Framework (MGF) is based on the formal operational sector principles while migration in general is still informal in nature.

INFORMAL IS NOT IRREGULAR 

Confusion of both the above as the same is not uncommon. In general the migration world is looked upon by the formal sector as informal bordering on "irregularity". The problem is that there are no communication channels through which both can interact.

The institutional aspiration of the formal mechanism to control the informal is understandable in any under-developed, weak-willed state. However, it also prevents the formal from repairing the flaws that plagues their own function. It also weakens capacity to identify and smooth out those elements that leads to irregular migration and limits informal migration in general.

The result has been a greater focus on control and lesser on efficiency and performance. The general discomfort that any state bureaucracy has in dealing with social institutions is reflected in the limited inter-actions.

THE INFORMAL-FORMAL MIGRATION FRAMEWORK

It's generally assumed that the informal and the formal can't mingle but in reality they do all the time. It's just that they don't show up in any GOB report. As a result, what doesn't suit the convenience of the bureaucracy, it ceases to "exist" on paper though ity goes on.

However, this too is a fact that it's the bureaucracy that gains the most from this formal-informal interaction and an economic sub-illegal sector that has emerged will not disappear due to the benefits enjoyed.  It's this reality that the MGF managers need to discuss.    

Right now it has become an issue of institutional ego. This applies to both national and international agencies who are involved in migration management. Because the MOUs are between two players only coming from the same space, the absence of the key player, the participants, has retarded the success of such efforts and arrangements.

This has been further deepened by the researchers and think tanks of the sectors that also play by the GOB rules. This is fine as both come from the same space. The operational players have not invested either in explaining their findings and taking it to the conceptual level. The result is a gap between the ideal and the actual. Until this is reduced, Bangladesh's migration management will continue be affected by the systemic glitches

UNPACKING THE PROCESS OF MIGRATION  

Based on field level experiences the following stages of a migration cycle cane be identified:

Pre-exit:

1. Intent to migrate and the motivating reasons.
2. Contact and gathering information from formal and informal sources
3. Fund management for exit such as loans, land sell etc
4. Contacting local facilitator/dalal for processing
5. Documents management before applying for departure
6. Finalizing pre-exit and exit formalities including making contact with GOB

Post Exit

7. Landing at destination and work (ME scenario).
8. Develop local network including hundi dealers
9. Work, survival and remittance
10. New or extra employment /trade for higher income
11. Investment management at home and work zone
12. Return for holidays /return after intended duration

MAPPING NEEDS

As can be seen, each segment has a comprehensive construction and needs to be unpacked in detail. In each segment, both official and the social factors are active. This analysis can help the decision makers to play a better functioning role in this sector. Till date the role of the government has been limited and they have done little in a critical sector of skill development for example nor encouraged new players to move much. Based on track records, the GOB is mostly interested in remittances flow and has therefore taken a short term view by not investing significantly in the future.

However, it often doesn't know what to do as its not beholden and in any situation its own informal economics continues. However, NGOs and informal players can also do much more than keep depending on donor projects to sustain them without making a significant enough impact on the process of migration itself.   

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