Negotiated and Involuntary Return: COVID-19 Pandemic and Return Migration of Bangladeshi Temporary Labour Migrant Men

Abstract

This paper investigates return migration of Bangladeshi temporary labour migrant men in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on a case study of Bangladeshi migrants, who are mostly occupied in low and semi-skilled labour-intensive markets in the Middle East and the Southeast Asian countries, this paper assesses the relational aspect between pandemic and return. It discusses the underlying reasons of pandemic induced return which is based on a fieldwork, conducted in 2021, with the Bangladeshi returnee migrants. It argues that migrant receiving states' exploitative policies–burgeoning labour market nationalisation and lack of social and legal protection mechanisms–are the overriding reasons of return, rather than the pandemic. Whilst the pandemic intensified these existing exclusionary policies, this paper depicts how the migrants conform to the policies of migrant receiving states through rigid visa regime, heightened labour market immobility, retrenchment, and wage theft, which resulted in return migration.