Foreign Labour Migration Prospects for Sri Lanka

Abstract

Presently, the destination of over 90% of Sri Lankan labour migrants constitute the Middle East region. Other significant facts are that most of the labour is in the unskilled category, and females dominate in this category. Remittances from migrants are a valuable source of foreign exchange to the country, and also eases the unemployment problems faced by the country. However, while mass labour outflows are dominant, especially in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, other countries have shown a gradual shift towards employment of skilled labour. In order to capitalize on this trend, it is imperative that Sri Lanka prepares its labour force to satisfy the demand for skilled labour by providing avenues for skill enhancement of prospective migrants. Its long term vision should be to reduce the flow of unskilled labour and increase that of skilled labour, so that the country could provide a competitive edge in comparison to those of other labour sending countries.