Return Migration and Occupational Change: The Case of Pakistani Migrants Returned from the Middle East

In: The Pakistan development review: PDR, Band 36, Heft 1, S. 1-37

Abstract

This paper examines the factors affecting occupational
composition of Pakistani workers upon their return from Middle East
employment by using the 1986 ILO/ARTEP Survey of Return Migrant
Households. In view of the concentration of workers in lowstatus
occupations prior to migration, there was a great incentive for them to
change these occupations after return. The study shows that the economic
resources gained from overseas employment gave migrants the strength to
seek independent employment, and there was a clear move out of the
production-service occupations into business and agriculture
occupations. This movement was strongly related to migrants' length of
stay in the Middle East. Since the occupational structure of the general
population remained almost unchanged in the 1970s and 1980s, the
employment trends exhibited by return migrants could largely be
attributed to overseas migration. However, the study shows that
businesses and farms established by migrant workers were
small-scale.