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BIDS Fortnightly Seminar 2021 "Local Nonfarm Opportunities and Migration Decisions: Evidence from Bangladesh"

Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) organized a seminar as part of the organization’s series of BIDS Fortnightly Seminar 2021-2022 on October 6, 2021 at 2:30 pm. Dr. Kazi Iqbal, Senior Research Fellow of BIDS presented his research titled “Local Nonfarm Opportunities and Migration Decisions: Evidence from Bangladesh” and Dr. Binayak Sen, Director General of BIDS chaired the event. The seminar was conducted in a hybrid format. Mr. Shykh Seraj, Director and Head of News, Channel I, Dr. Quazi Shahabuddin, ex-DG of BIDS, Prof. M Mozammel Huq, Dr. Quazi Shahabuddin, Dr. Mahfuz Kabir, spoke in the seminar, among others. 

This study provided the first strong evidence of the relationship between the household nonfarm income and migration decisions which was not observed before, combining two sets of secondary data- Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2016 and Economic Census 2013. Dr. Iqbal found that, in municipalities, if the nonfarm activity increases then household income grows and this eventually reduces migration. However, the migration reducing impact of nonfarm income is found only for the households in municipalities but not in the rural areas. This study suggests that developing municipalities and secondary towns will lead to a drop in the number of migration from rural are to urban cities in Bangladesh. Linking to the current pandemic, the authors argued if the numbers of the migrant workers were not high, lockdown measures during this pandemic would have been much more effective.


Meeting recording link here

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