“The pandemic has added to my miseries”: Bangladeshi migrant workers’ social protection revisited

Abstract

The protection of migrant workers has received renewed attention in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article depicts how unpreparedness, inadequate social security and support services, and pre-existing socio-economic disparities disproportionately impacted Bangladeshi migrant workers during the pandemic. Adopting a qualitative approach based on findings from existing literature and surveys and primary data collected through interviews with returnee Bangladeshi migrants from the Gulf States, the article argues that the dearth of institutional, legal, social, and political understanding of the needs of migrants remains the main impediment to a comprehensive social protection system. The findings call for designing a crisis response and recovery policy, preparing a returnee database and leveraging bilateral, regional, and global processes to ensure migrants’ uninterrupted protection at home and abroad. The article also underscores the importance of a nuanced understanding and practice of gendered social support, and above all, adopting a rights-based approach to labor migration.