Return and Re-migration Challenges for Bangladeshi Female Migrants in the Middle East during the COVID Pandemic

Abstract

Every year many Bangladeshi females migrate overseas to work as domestic workers in the Middle Eastern houses and few females migrate to other job sectors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many female migrants returned home voluntarily and involuntarily. While involuntary return created various forms of stress and hardship, pandemic-induced complexities and restrictions made it difficult for the returnee female migrants to re-migrate. This paper aims to empirically explore the return and re-migration journey of Bangladeshi female migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Empirical evidence was collected through in-depth interviewing of 25 female returnee migrants and five key informants. The findings confirm the knowledge gap regarding the multi-layered recruitment process, presence, and domination of various actors in the female migrants’ migration journey, and unclear laws and policies as the most critical challenges that made re-migration difficult for the female returnee migrants. The COVID-19 pandemic created numerous difficulties like visa expiration, cancellation of flights, vaccination problems, financial difficulties for quarantine, and passport renewal issues. All these difficulties contributed to precarious conditions through intensifying the stress in work life and social life and thus augmented Bangladeshi female migrants’ sufferings upon their return from the Middle Eastern countries. The new knowledge offered by this paper calls for effective policy actions and labour protection for the returnee female migrants during a pandemic situation.