The Future of Migration to GCC Countries by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789819699285
Publisher: Springer Nature Singapore
Published: 2025-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

While the economic conditions in the countries of destination improved after the COVID-19 pandemic and demand for foreign labour was picking up, the economic situation in Sri Lanka deteriorated significantly. Macroeconomic issues such as dwindling external reserves, heavy debt burden, hyperinflation, and challenges in importing essential goods translated into microeconomic problems such as shortages of fuel, medicine, and other essential items and difficulty in meeting the cost of living. The coincidence between such push factors at home and growing demand and related pull factors in the CODs drove many Sri Lankans to seek foreign employment, through all available avenues which included formal, informal, and irregular channels of recruitment.

In this context, the departures for foreign employment increased rapidly to reach 311,056 in 2022, as reflected in the official statistics—a 53% increase compared to the pre-pandemic level in 2019. In 2023, total departures were 297,656. While statistics from SLBE depict only the departures of migrant workers registered with the SLBFE as explained earlier, those migrating for foreign employment outside the SLBFE’s purview also increased in number. Though no official statistics exist to document this trend, the recent increase in the number of passport issuances and total departure statistics hint at these new developments. The number of new passports issued rose from 382,560 in 2021 to 874,955 in 2022, a growth of 129% (see Fig. 2). The number of passports issued declined in the latter part of 2023, at which time Sri Lanka started recovering with a better economic outlook, thanks to a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), falling inflation, and a decline in the negative economic growth rate.

Fig. 2Yearly data on the number of passports issued (2017–2023).

Source Department of Immigration and Emigration, Sri Lanka

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