Economic and Non-Economic Paradox of Quality of Life of Bangladeshi Migrant Workers: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Migration studies are increasingly validating that non-economic factors like, subjective wellbeing or Quality of Life (QoL) carries substantial weight over the economic dimensions. Yet, there is a lack of research on economic and non-economic wellbeing or QoL of the migrant workers in Asia. This qualitative research investigated to find out the economic and non-economic factors effecting QoL of Bangladeshi construction workers in Malaysia. Thematic analysis was used to find out the effect of income, housing, and freedom on QoL. The scope of the study covers only the Bangladesh construction workers who have been in Malaysia for less than ten years. Outcome of this research suggest that paradox of economic activities pushing Bangladeshi construction workers towards noneconomic paradox like ignoring housing and legal freedom and pulling down the QoL. Introduction Lately, migration studies have increasingly validated that non-economic factors like, subjective wellbeing or QoL carries substantial weight over the economic dimensions (Amit, 2010; Amit & Riss, 2014). Yet, subjective wellbeing or QoL of immigrants is known little ( Amit & Riss, 2014). While conducting QoL research, advanced countries separately focus on migrant workers. A recent study finds out that Portuguese migrant workers are satisfied with job-related QoL in Switzerland (Neto et al., 2019). There is a lack of research on non-economic and economic QoL of the migrant workers in Asia (Reza et al., 2019), which also implies on Bangladesh and Malaysia. For the variations of the findings in previous researches many gaps are found in this area of migrant labour (Reza et al., 2019). These gaps demonstrate that experts in this field are yet to grasp the holistic picture of the economic and non-economic phenomenon of the migrant workers, let alone the workers, who are making all the decisions regarding their destination and economic activities. Recent literature on migration emphasizes more on developing social networks, local language acquisition, sense of identity, and subjective wellbeing, which are basically of non-economic International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 1 0 , No. 4, April, 2020, E-ISSN: 2222-6990 © 2020 HRMARS 350 dimensions (Amit, 2012; Amit, 2010). Bangladeshi migrant workers are still putting more emphasis on the economic issue, which is rather putting them in trouble and lowering the QoL. Researchers found that there is a positive correlation between subjective QoL and material conditions (Havasi, 2013). Subjective QoL consists of subsistence, good health state, human relations, security of the individual, freedom, and the opportunity to develop (Havasi, 2013). This research aims to investigate the effect of economic issues like income and non-economic issues like housing and freedom on subjective QoL of migrant Bangladeshi construction workers in Malaysia. The study is limited to the workers staying for the last ten years in Malaysia. Literature Review Migration economists agree that 'economic integration' takes place when immigrants receive the same salary as natives (Borjas, 1990; Amit & Riss, 2014). This integration of immigrants is usually a long-term process, which depends on the number of years of migration (YoM) in the destination country (Preston & Grimes, 2019). YoM is an important consideration because there are time-specific effects of migration (Nowok, Van-Ham, Findlay & Gayle, 2013) like knowing the people, their culture, or language of the host country. The latest migration researches reveal that subjective considerations (non-economic) form a very important factor that affects the immigrant integration process. Unlike other sectors, economic integration is found to be low in the construction sector of Malaysia. Malaysians are at the top of the wage hierarchy while Bangladeshis are at the bottom (Reza et al., 2019). This difference is due to the presence of outsourcing companies in between the employers and Bangladeshi workers, though as per the minimum wage policy of 2016, both local and foreign workers are supposed to get at least RM 1,100 per month (Hwa et al., 2019). Nielsen (2014) has mentioned that the Indonesian migrant labors tolerate personal economic hardship, many works without salary in the initial periods to cover the fees charged by their recruitment agent (Nielsen, & Sendjaya, 2014). These studies reflect the same picture of Bangladeshi workers. The scenario is rather worse because workers don't know why and how much money is deducted from their salary. This economic vulnerability unpleasantly impacts on economic QoL. Quite a few studies documented the impact of living and working conditions on the physical and mental health of migrants, which ultimately affects the QoL. Migrant workers usually live and work in poor conditions like crowded and substandard places, eat food without any health consideration, sleep insufficiently, and often lack access to healthcare services (Alswaidi, Memish, Al Hakeem & Atlam, 2013). On the contrary, their remittances mostly used for living expenses and to finance major household projects such as renovating or building a house back home and agricultural issues (Reza et al., 2019). Some of the recent literature have shown how the lack of social security, freedom and low wage negatively impacts on their social wellbeing among the Indonesian labors in Malaysia (Nielsen & Sendjaya, 2014; Smyth, Nielsen, Zhai, Liu, Liu, Tang, 2011). These cases are also found to be true in the case of Bangladeshi workers. Productivity and earnings are likely to be affected due to the lack of freedom of choice in the work environment (Ruhs, 2016). There is a huge difference in the migrant worker's sense of personal security and civic freedoms (Czaika, & DeHaas, 2012). The migrant workers International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 1 0 , No. 4, April, 2020, E-ISSN: 2222-6990 © 2020 HRMARS 351 had lack of job security, poor salary but long working hours, low access to the public services, poor living and working conditions, lack of legal rights, and physical and mental stress towards their economic and social wellbeing or QoL (Reza et al., 2019). Theoretical Framework Noble laureate Amartya Sen conceptualized 'capability theory,' which proposes that subjective QoL or wellbeing of an individual worker could be assessed according to his/ her capabilities to work through individual freedom. One should not be evaluated according to the achievements but within the contexts of the real opportunities and freedim available to him/ her (Binder, 2014). Sen pragmatically defined the purpose of economic development as 'expanding the capability' and, therefore, the 'freedom of individuals' to fulfill their potential to lead a meaningful life (Binder, 2014). Figure 1 shows the relation of individual economic development through expanding their capability and freedom to fullfil the potential and their ultimate effect on QoL. Human beings must have equal possibilities and equal opportunities to function and real freedom of being and doing (Sen 2010). With equal opportunities, people have the freedom to demonestrate their capabilities, potentially reach their functioning and lead a high QoL. The same concern of freedom is raised for Bangladeshi migrant construction workers, though they have the capability for functioning and flourishing. Withholding the legal documents by the outsourcing agents and employers and binding or virtually captivating them to an unfavorable work situation raises the question of workers' freedom and QoL. Research Design and Methodology A qualitative research through thematic analysis was applied in this research to find out the economic and non-economic factors effecting QoL of Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia. Atlas. ti version seven was used to find out the code, subtheme and themes of effect of income, housing, and freedom over QoL. The sample of the field study included Bangladesh migrant construction workers of Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Penang, and Kuala Terengganu, which were randomly selected from amongst the 11 districts of the mainland of Malaysian peninsular. Multilevel participants (Yin, 2015) were selected from the construction workers, outsourcing agents/ employers, Bangladeshi embassy personalities in Malaysia, and intellectuals in this field. Following the data saturation technique (Yin, 2015) interview of 22 were taken for thematic analysis. Results and Discussion Income Paradox Economic Development Expanding Capability Freedom of Individual Meaningful