Each year, many Bangladeshi migrants return home, particularly from the Middle East and Asia, facing significant reintegration challenges due to social and economic barriers. To address these issues, BRAC’s Returnee Migrants’ Reintegration Project adopted a holistic approach, focusing on sustainable reintegration strategies. Implemented in 10 high-migration locations across 40 upazilas, the project provided direct support to 10,000 returnees through counseling, financial assistance, and skills training. Additionally, it raised awareness about safe migration and reintegration, reaching 595,000 individuals. This comprehensive initiative aimed to address the social, psychological, and economic needs of returnees for a smoother and more effective reintegration process.
Researchers: Das, Narayan C.; Haque, Sheikh Touhidul; Mahmood, Sakib; Shatil, Tanvir; Neaz, Nuzaira Binte; Chowdhury, Soujannita
Timeline: 2021-2022
Status: Completed
Contact: Nuzaira Binte Neaz; nuzaira.neaz@bracu.ac.bd
Context:
This article examines the impact of BRAC’s Returnee Migrants’ Reintegration Project on returnees’ prospects in terms of remigration, employment, income, and overall well-being. Migration serves as a vital livelihood strategy in Bangladesh, yet every year, a significant number of Bangladeshi migrants return home—particularly those who have worked in the Middle East and other parts of Asia.
The reintegration process for these returnees is complex, as they face numerous social and economic challenges. Beyond financial difficulties, many returnees grapple with social isolation and feelings of estrangement, especially those who spent extended periods abroad.
To address these issues, BRAC’s Returnee Migrants’ Reintegration Project implemented a holistic approach. The initiative provided counseling, financial support, and skills training to help returnees achieve a sustainable and effective reintegration into their communities.
The BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) conducted an evaluation of the project to assess its impact on the returnees’ ability to remigrate, secure employment, improve their income, and enhance their overall well-being.
Objective:
The impact assessment aims to determine the causal effect of reintegration support on the lives of returnee migrants and explore the reasons behind these effects. It provides key findings that evaluate the validity of the project’s intervention logic. The assessment’s findings and recommendations will inform policymakers on scaling up the project in terms of the number of individuals reached and the geographical coverage.
Methodology:
A secondary screening process, conducted by DRSC staff at the district level, scrutinized the socioeconomic conditions of the identified migrants. From the initial pool of 21,000 selected migrants, 10,000 beneficiaries were chosen based on their level of vulnerability. The migrants were then categorized for three types of support (training, financial and counseling) according to their specific needs.
Following the completion of beneficiary selection, a roster of all beneficiaries was compiled and systematically categorized by ward, union, upazila, and district. A ward-level randomized strategy was implemented to assess the impact of the program.
The evaluation employed a hybrid approach, integrating both quantitative and qualitative methods, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the project’s impact. This combined methodology enabled us to capture both impact and contextual insights for a nuanced interpretation of the results.
Findings:
- Training Support: Improved income, reduced unemployment, and increased household consumption but had little impact on reducing remigration intent or improving access to housing, education, or healthcare.
- Financial Support: Enhanced household stability and reduced remigration intent despite mixed results in income and employment outcomes initially.
- Counselling Support: Improved household consumption, reduced family pressure to remigrate, and raised awareness about migration risks, though it had no significant effect on income or employment.
- Economic Reintegration (Training + Financial Support): Achieved higher income, increased earnings, reduced unemployment, and improved household consumption but had a limited effect on reducing family pressure to remigrate.
- Reintegration Support (Full Sample Analysis): Boosted household income, financial stability, and consumption while reducing unemployment and remigration rates, with modest but meaningful impacts overall.
- Social Reintegration Support: Assisted in addressing migration fraud and supporting returnees, but showed no significant improvement in mental well-being, with mixed results in healthcare and legal access.
- Impact on COVID-19 Returnees: Returnees who lost jobs during the pandemic showed a lower intent to remigrate and greater reductions in unemployment, especially with financial support.
Recommendations:
- Prioritize Training: Expand training programs as they have the most significant impact on improving financial outcomes and enabling returnees to engage in income-generating activities.
- Focus on Integrated Support: Combine counselling with training or financial assistance to address both psychological and economic challenges effectively, maximizing the overall program impact.
- Tailored Interventions: Continue tailoring support based on individual vulnerabilities to ensure resources are directed where they are most needed, considering that recipients of financial aid are often more economically disadvantaged.
