The Sri Lankan migrant workers' remittance from South Korea and its impact on their family members in home country

Abstract

Sri Lanka relies significantly on labor migrants' remittance inflow from overseas. Such remittances are the major income sources for the country, and they are the largest source of foreign exchange earnings in Sri Lanka. According to the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment data, 211,459 (male 129,774 and female 81,685) Sri Lankans' departed to foreign countries as migrant workers in the year 2018. Currently, more than two million Sri Lankans work abroad. Recorded sources of foreign exchange earnings show that such employees' incomes are about approximately 7 billion USD (1.1 trillion LKR - Sri Lankan Rupees) in 2018, which was 65.13% of the country's total foreign exchange earnings (Central Bank of Sri Lanka, 2018). The remittance enhances the migrant workers' and their families in Sri Lanka regarding their economic and social living standards. However, in recent years, total departures for foreign employment were decreased. Therefore, this study explores the Sri Lankan migrant workers' remittance from South Korea and its impact on their family members in their home country. In this thesis, the New Economic of Labor Migration (NELM) theory is applied because of its emphasis on remittance as a positive factor in economic development, such as improving the workers' and their family members' economic and social standards (Taylor, 1999). This research consists of two different types of data sets. They are survey data and data set drafted from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the Department of Census and Statistics of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment. The research findings mainly depend on survey data and that data analyzed were in two major parts (economic improvement and social inclusion). According to the findings, the migration of Sri Lankan labors to South Korea has brought multiple impacts. These migrants and their families are affected economically and socially using the transfers of monetary and social remittances.