Thus, the surge in remittances is not a natural phenomenon and hoping for it to continue is not likely to be the case. Job cuts are quite frequent in many of the host countries, and as a result, the number of returnees is increasing. In Bangladesh, till December last, around three hundred thousand expatriate workers …
Are we, really ‘on the same boat’, or are we “all in this together”? With unemployment rates skyrocketing across the globe, hundreds of millions scraping by to feed their children, multitudes of nameless and hapless families chugging along without access to proper healthcare, subsisting on hope and prayer so that they may survive the scourges …
The growth of the internet has changed things a lot. Today, social media offers us almost instant access to whatever content interests us whenever we want it. We can get instant updates on the latest news, instead of waiting for a publication to “go to press”. These, no doubt, are the good things we can …
So, it is apparently an unholy competition. Health experts have warned that political posturing could harm efforts to boost public confidence in covid-19 vaccines at this critical time. The challenge now is to get the political will together to protect all those at risk and bring an end to the global pandemic. It is …
Migration is more global in recent times than it ever was. For many who migrated for work or income abroad decades back, the primary motivation was not to settle permanently in overseas countries but to work there and send money home. This was particularly the case with most migrants who basically were job seekers. The …
Identity on the basis of religion is perceived differently by different people. Some people need to be anchored in a single community, which provides them with a ‘direction’ in life; others live in situations where they see themselves as members of various groups. These people then have to deal with how much these individual groups …
The massive numbers of refugees who fled to Bangladesh in 2017 joined hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas who had fled Myanmar in the past. Kutupalong, the largest refugee settlement in the world, according to UNHCR, is home to more than 600,000 refugees alone. The Rohingya crisis — the most terrible humanitarian disaster in South …
Observers feel that the Assange case creates a precedent that threatens freedom of the press in Britain and elsewhere. If Assange is extradited, then any journalist who publishes information that the American authorities deem to be classified, however well-known or harmless it may be, will risk being extradited to face trial in America. Isn’t …
Many economists, also outside the WTO, warn that the notion that less interdependence makes economies more resilient is wrong: autarky in food and other essentials would make countries more, not less, vulnerable to the economic consequences of localised crises such as droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes. Supply chain diversification, a more reasonable objective, would be better …
What is alarming for the returnees is the utter lack of assurance whether they, even after a long time lag, can get back to work in those countries — in post-Corona times. While rehabilitating the economies would be the prime concern of the host countries — that too, with cautious spending, jobseekers from Bangladesh might …
Deported ex-pat workers take the brunt: Bangladesh scenario Read More »
In a land where the impoverished millions bother least about the State as an agency of any help are best served by being gagged, more so by the fear of it. August 29 was unlike any other day marked to observe an International Day in Bangladesh. It was the Intl Day of the Victims of …
