JBS Vol 26. Num 1. 2024. Article 5 - What Makes Migrants Move Out of or Fall Back into Poverty

This article examines pre-and-post-migration poverty and non-poverty statuses of returned migrants from Malaysia by analyzing the basic needs/living standards in a village in Bangladesh, thereby underlining the factors that shape those statuses. In doing so, the study conducted a baseline survey on the study village and in-depth interviews of all returned migrants. The vignettes of migrants are categorized and analyzed through content analysis and pre-and-post-migration poverty conditions are scrutinized through a Basic Needs Approach (BNA). We find that the majority of poor, lower middle-class, and middle-class migrants have enhanced their pre-migration household resources and thereby have attained improved living standards compared to their pre-migration period. The study also finds that upon returning home, a portion of migrant households from all classes has experienced a decrease in resources, is now living in a worse living condition, and has fallen back to poverty. Moving out of and/or falling back into poverty is determined by a number of factors such as migrants’ personal characteristics, migrant household members' employment statuses, initial household resources, and the governance systems of Bangladesh and Malaysia.