Overseas employment:

Less females migrate

Rasika SOMARATHNA

A sharp drop in females migrating for employment as domestic workers abroad has been recorded, according to labour migration figures for the current year.

Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment Acting Addl. General Manager L. K. Ruhunage, said the number of females migrating abroad for employment as domestic aides had dropped to 47 per cent, according to available figures until the end of August.

The number of skilled and semi-skilled workers migrating for employment has increased significantly and has outnumbered their unskilled colleagues. A few years back, the number of females working abroad stood at over 80 per cent with around 90 per cent of them being lowly paid domestic aides.

Within the last three years (up to 2008), the male labour migrants have upped their share by 52 percent while the females could only manage a 48 percent increase. However, despite these emerging trends and dwindling world economy, Sri Lanka has managed to up its share in the global foreign employment market.

The current figures are almost on a par with last year's 253,000 plus, considered as the highest ever.

At the end of August this year, 167,637 Sri Lankans had migrated in search of greener pastures abroad and the difference is that a majority of them are skilled workers.

The current upward trend in skilled labour migration (especially males) has been attributed to the measures introduced by authorities over a period of time with the expectation of converting the entire sector into a demand-driven process with the expectation of enhancing its competitive edge.

Introducing appropriate policies and structural changes together with promotional, protective and welfare activities to meet the international market challenges which would eventually optimize contributions to national economy is considered as the way forward. According to Ruhunage, the idea is to encourage skilled and semi-skilled labour migration for better wages\perks and discourage the practice of sending unskilled Labour (especially females) abroad.

Despite the increase in male labour migrants during the last three years, females still occupy the number one spot with a share of 65 per cent when it comes to the overall figure. The total number of Sri Lankans employed abroad is considered to be in excess of 1.6 million.

They are also Sri Lanka's largest foreign exchange earner and contribute a share of around 35 per cent annually. According to Ruhunage a number of factors have contributed to the positive growth of skilled and semi-skilled male migrant workers being employed abroad and the reduction of unskilled female domestic\cleaner workers.

Factors such as less dependency on Middle Eastern countries, emerging markets such as Libya, Korea, Japan, Romania, Canada, Armenia etc. for skilled and semi-skilled males has paid rich dividends. In addition, alternative employment avenues for females, enhanced awareness campaigns, new social security measures, training schedules in accordance with international standards, imposing minimum conditions on employees, tightening screws on rogue recruiters and human traffickers too has helped.

Also the introduction of a National Policy on Labour Migration for the first time in the country's history, under the purview of Minister in charge of the subject Keheliya Rambukwella too has added muscle in improving the numbers and quality standards.

The SLBFE too has decided to expand its regional sub-branch network in order to have better reach to cater to the growth and alleviate discrepancies.

Last week the SLBFE Chairman opened a new regional sub-branch in Badulla following the opening of a similar office in Batticaloa last month. It hopes to establish new offices in Vavuniya and Jaffna shortly.