Recruitment of Labor Migrants for the Middle East: The Sri Lankan Case

This article deals with the social, economic and demographic aspects of labor migration from Sri Lanka to the Middle East. The findings are based on a survey covering 891 return migrants and 866 family members of current migrants, as well as a total of 407 nonmigrants who were interviewed as a control group. Although the elasticity of the demand for female domestic personnel is much smaller than that for male migrants, it was found that recruitment for female labor migrants has increased considerably in recent years. The enormous demand for foreign employment has led to a thriving recruitment sector and to numerous illegal activities also among authorized employment agents. Currently, prospective labor migrants have to incur huge debts to finance migration.