Population Council is using quantitative data collected by other GFEMS partners to conduct a case study examining how debt influences migration patterns. It also uses additional primary (qualitative) and secondary data to produce a thoughtful analysis of debt and utility of financial services for migrants to reduce vulnerabilities.
Population Council is exploring the role of debt and indebtedness in migration-related decisions and financing migration; the ways debt shapes migrants’ experiences including work-related choices and experiences, freedom in the migration processes, and financial and non-financial vulnerabilities faced at the destination; the role of debt in shaping return migration decisions and experiences; the experiences of migrant families in the place of origin, including the level of household debt and how remittances are used for paying loans; and the type of financial services used by migrants, challenges faced by migrants in using formal banking services, and the financial services that have the potential to reduce their vulnerability.
Population Council is conducting an analysis of the overseas labor recruitment system in Bangladesh (both pre-departure and return), including positive actions taken by government authorities and migration actors of Bangladesh in addressing forced labor repatriation, reintegration, recovery, and referral mechanisms. Population Council will be assessing how funded interventions in Bangladesh in overseas labor recruitment contribute to any changes within the existing system. This includes examining systems in place and actions taken by the government and other stakeholders to improve repatriation, reintegration, recovery and referral for returned migrants and survivors of labor exploitation overseas and the contributions of the Global Fund’s interventions in improving these systems.
Population Council is conducting an analysis of the overseas labor recruitment system in Bangladesh (both pre-departure and return), including positive actions taken by government authorities and migration actors of Bangladesh in addressing forced labor repatriation, reintegration, recovery, and referral mechanisms. Population Council will be assessing how funded interventions in Bangladesh in overseas labor recruitment contribute to any changes within the existing system. This includes examining systems in place and actions taken by the government and other stakeholders to improve repatriation, reintegration, recovery and referral for returned migrants and survivors of labor exploitation overseas and the contributions of the Global Fund’s interventions in improving these systems.
This case study will be a systems analysis of the construction industry in India. The analysis will focus on the relationships between large construction company contractors, mid-size contractors, micro-contractors, recruitment agencies, and seasonal migrant workers. The study should be qualitative in nature but integrate both qualitative and quantitative components. Population Council will examine the types and characteristics of labor contractors in the construction industry; the recruitment chain, including strategies that contractors use to identify and recruit laborer’s, people involved, and financial transaction across the recruitment process, the extent to which ethical recruitment process is followed; channels through which migrant workers enter the job market and differences in these channels by gender and skills of the workers and the type of construction industries, terms and conditions under which these workers are recruited and awareness of rights and entitlements; and actions that can help labor contractors adopt ethical recruitment processes.
This case study will compare the acceptability, relevance, effectiveness and quality of CSE reintegration models implemented by the Fund’s three partners in Bangladesh and India receiving funding from Norad. Population Council will examine the commonalities and differences in the approaches and strategies used in two rehabilitation/re-integration models and one prevention model; the extent to which the models were perceived to be acceptable and relevant by CSE survivors and other stakeholders; effects of the models in improving the awareness of CSE survivors about economic opportunities, rights and entitlements and skills, securing a sustainable and decent level of income, overcoming trauma, and preventing re-trafficking of survivors; the quality of psychosocial support, technical trainings, and job placements provided to CSE survivors, as well as the cost per participant of providing services.
Population Council will assess intervention effectiveness by conducting a longitudinal study among three groups of aspiring migrants. The first group will receive services from the Migration Resource Centres (MRC) to reduce source-side vulnerabilities (MRC arm); the second group will be exposed to an awareness raising campaign (Campaign arm); and the third group will be exposed to neither of these activities (Comparison arm).
Population Council will conduct pre- and post-intervention surveys, difference in differences (DD) design with longitudinal survey data collected from aspiring migrants from intervention villages and matched comparison villages at baseline before the roll-out of the intervention and a year later. This will contribute to filling a major evidence gap on what works to ensure safe and regular migration and provide additional insights on the role of debt in migration.
Population Council will assess the effectiveness of various tools that have been integrated into a Supplier Capacity Platform to assist suppliers to better predict their planning, production capacity, and labor practices as well as gain access to buyers who commit to business incentives in exchange for improvement. These tools will help suppliers to reduce unrealistic production quotes based on assumptions and incomplete metrics. Reducing infeasible production quotes will also reduce exploitative cost-saving measures such as eliminating worker safety precautions, scheduling excessive overtime, withholding wages, and sub-contracting to unauthorized and under-regulated facilities. Population Council will conduct short quantitative stakeholder feedback surveys distributed to ten participating buyers and fifty factories that will be taken at two time-points and a quantitative worker survey with a representative sample of workers from both informal and formal factories representative sample of both informal that were on-boarded onto the platform.
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