Bangladeshi origin people living in the United kingdom: perceptions towards Bangladesh in terms of visits, remittances and investment

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to know the perceptions of Bangladeshi origin people living in the United Kingdom permanently towards Bangladesh in terms of visits, remittances and investment along with their future plan for keeping connection with Bangladesh. The economy of Bangladesh mainly depends on agriculture, remittances of worker working abroad and exportations of various goods like tea, jute and jute made handicrafts, sea food, ready-made garments etc. The reserve of foreign currency in the country is highly dependent on remittances of Bangladeshi emigrants working in different countries which also alleviate poverty in the country as well. The foreign currency reserve is crucially important for balance of payments for international trade in the country. The export sector alone is not sufficient for the expected reserve of foreign currency of the country but in fact, the major part of foreign currency is presently coming from the export sector only. The poverty in the country is growing very fast resulting in high growth rate in unemployment. At the household level, remittance eliminates poverty through reducing high growth rate of unemployment. The remittance is highly needed for a sustainable economy in Bangladesh for alleviation of poverty and to increase the volume of foreign currency reserve. The amount of remittances from different countries to Bangladesh more or less is appreciable but the remittance from the UK is much less than the expectation. Because the Bangladeshi origin people living in the UK are loosing interest to Bangladesh generation by generation which is natural phenomena, many of them are shifting to other different countries for economic recession in the UK. Given the prevailing conditions, there is an urgent need to increase the volume of remittances coming from the UK for economic emancipation of the country. With a view to increasing the volume of remittances from Bangladeshi emigrants working in different countries the government of Bangladesh has formulated and undertaken some favorable policies and programs for emigrants especially for the business and banking sectors. But the expected target of receiving remittances from Bangladeshi emigrants in the UK is yet to be achieved. The study discusses the background of the Bangladeshi origin people living in the UK permanently. Following that, the study elaborately presents the causes of low frequency of visits, low volume of remittances and low trend in investment in Bangladesh along with the present and future plan for relationship between Bangladeshi origin people living in the UK and Bangladesh. The core issues that have been covered are: (i) historical perspectives of reasons and process of migration of Bangladeshi people to the UK along with their facts & figures (ii) the obstacles that hinder frequent visits to Bangladesh (iii) the underlying causes of receiving low remittances and low trend in investment and (iv) their plan for future connection with Bangladesh. From the study it was found that the overall perceptions of the Bangladeshi people living in the UK especially towards people’s behavior, hospitality etc in Bangladesh deserve to be appreciated. However, the interaction between Bangladeshi origin people in the UK and Bangladesh are deteriorating generation to generation which primarily originates from demographic background, staying in different society for long period and very minimum level of social connection with Bangladesh. Furthermore, the study has found that there have been sufficient positive views among the Bangladeshi origin people in the UK towards Bangladesh. It has been clear that to receive the expected amount of remittances from the Bangladeshi origin people in the UK to Bangladesh needs close interaction with them. Frequent interaction can be established through ensured safe and secured visiting environment in Bangladesh for them that will certainly up-grade volume of investment by them simultaneously. The study found that Bangladeshi origin people in the UK are willing to keeping good connection with Bangladesh in future. It is recommended that the government of Bangladesh should understand the concerns of Bangladeshi people living in the UK towards Bangladesh. The concerns of the people could be intervened through taking initiatives by the second generation living in the UK and by the NGOs, government and semi-government organizations in Bangladesh. The findings of our study suggest that the mutual beneficial relationships can be established for long through undertaking persistent policies to be implemented by the government of Bangladesh.