Investigaciones nacionales

Most household heads are also income earners, and are predominantly, in order of frequency, small business owners (or store owners), daily laborers, farmers, and company

44 workers (i.e. working in floor management positions in factories). In general, people employed as small business owners (i.e. owners of small stalls in the nearest marker), large business owners (i.e. owner of actual shops, pharmacies, contractor companies etc.), medical Workers, company workers, farmers, and fishermen earned higher than the average incomes. Whereas, daily laborers, farm laborers, garments workers, storekeepers (or salesmen), rickshaw pullers, and pension recipients generally received lower than the mean level of monthly income.

Number of Income earners:

The mean number of income earners is 1.06, thus most households (63.8%) have just one income earner. The highest number of income earners in a household is 4, and 17.6% have no income earners at all. Most of the households with no income earners (67%) are female-headed. Also, interestingly , all of the households with no income earners have at least one domestic or international migrant, with almost 90% of them having international migrants. Similarly, all but one of the households with no income earners reported receiving some form of remittances from migrant family members.

Household income:

Excluding the households reporting zero income earners and thus zero monthly income, the mean monthly income for households in our sample was 6371TK (excluding remittances.) The average monthly per capita income in our sample was 1465TK, or $21

45 per month. This is significantly lower than the per capita income estimates for all of Bangladesh ($125 per month).

Possessions: Land, Pond and Livestock

Ownership of land is quite varied in our sample. A little over half of the household (51.1%) own some form of land (other than land of current dwelling), and half without any land ownership (49.1%). Land is primarily used for subsistence agriculture (almost 75% of all land owned), weakly followed by land used to grow crops for sale (11.8%) and then land purchased to build family dwelling and land used to rent to other families for use (both below 7%). Some of the better-off families (32.5% of those who own land) also employ other families to work on their land.

Less than a quarter of the households own ponds. Most households also own livestock for subsistence and income. Cows and Chickens are the most commonly owned animals, followed by ducks. Animals are primarily used for meat and dairy for purposes of subsistence, with also significant commercial usage of animals for sale of dairy and meat products in local markets.

Dwelling:

Almost all households own their own home (95.2%) which is not a significant finding, given that there is not a strong presence of hierarchal system of land ownership, where few households own most of the land on which the rest of the households live as tenants. The size of the dwellings are more varied, with an average of 2.5 rooms per

46 household, and 10.7 “decimal” area. A significant portion (~30%) of the households is single-room dwellings. The type of floor and fencing material are also informative in terms of household wealth. 83% of households us earth as their flooring material, whereas 17% use cement, the more expensive material. In general, households with cement foundation tend to have higher incomes. Tin was the predominant fencing material (90.8%), with a few households (5%) with cement fencing and just one household in our sample with brick fencing. From local prices, we hold that, besides earth, tin is the least expensive and most widely available fencing material. Cement and brick are far more expensive, with brick being the more expensive material.

Amenities:

Most households (73%) own fans, and the average number of fans is 1.98 per household, with the maximum number of fans being as high as 9 in one household. Many households also own televisions (45.4%), however, they are not as common as fans.

Furthermore, most households own just one TV, and the highest number of TVs owned is 3 by just one household. Very few households own refrigerators (8%) and no household owns more than one. Also, all the households that own refrigerators also own at least one TV as well as fan. Most households that own at least one type of the three types of amenities, own fan and TV together (37.2%), followed closely by households that own just one type of amenity (28%) which is fans with just one exception. It should be noted however that 26.8% of households own no amenities.

Number of Income Earners

47 The maximum number of income earners in a household was 4, with a minimum of 0. Of the 500 households surveyed, 88 households had no income earners (17.6%), most households (63.8%) had only one income earner and 13.8% of households had two income earners. Of the 88 households with no local income earners, all have migrant family members and 78 of these households cite that remittances from migrants are crucial to their livelihood. All 88 households cite that remittances are at least at times helpful. A total of 79 of 88 households (89.8%) with no local income have at least one international migrant, while only 9 have domestic migrants only. Thus all of the households with no income have migrants, and a large majority of them have international migrants. This suggests that international remittance could be a crucial source of income for very low income households.

Eid sacrifice

Of the Muslim households in our sample, only 27.1% had done Eid sacrifice in the past year. Indicating a small proportion of muslim households had dispensable income in the past year. Of the households that sacrificed, most households sacrificed cows. We recorded the color of the animals sacrificed and used local market information based on prices according to color to see how much dispensable income a household has.

This question only pertains to sacrifices made in the previous year and we use it to see the impacts of remittances.

C. Migrants

Sex, Age and Education:

48 Most households in our sample (91.4%) have migrant family members (including domestic migrants.) However most domestic migrants are females who leave home to stay with their husbands after marriage. For this paper we are concerned with international migrants. 65% of households in our sample have at least one international migrant. International migrants are almost exclusively male in our sample (with the exception of four females), and are quite young. The average age of foreign migrants is 31.4years, with the maximum age being 65. The average number of years abroad for international migrants from our sample households is 4.98years, with a maximum of 30 years abroad.

Most migrants are literate, however a large number of migrants (43.4%) have only completed primary schooling or less. A small portion of migrants (18%) however have completed secondary education and beyond, while a tiny group of migrants (3.7%) have completed either graduate (Bachelors) or Post-Graduate (Masters) education.

Destination region:

Most international migrants (56.2%) move to the Middle East, followed by nations in Southeast Asia, such as Singapore and Malaysia (see Appendix B). Overall, only 7 migrants in our sample moved to Western nations. This is likely due to the increased transportation costs due to distance, lack of resources and ability to solicit jobs from such a great distance, lack of skills for western job markets, and/ or the absence of related migrants, who generally prove crucial to helping family members settle and attain jobs in foreign countries. Migrants from Mirzapur are largely low-skilled. Most from our sample (89.8%) work as daily laborers in foreign countries, weakly followed by (6.7%)

49 of all migrants working in blue-collar company positions, for example, as factory managers. Almost all of the migrants in Middle East (91.7%) are employed as daily laborers.

Relationship to Household Head:

A large portion of emigrants are related as sons to the household head (31.5%) , 19.1%

are related as brothers, 16.3% are related as brothers-in-law, 10.7% are related as husband, and 6.2% are related as sons-in-law.

The survey misses a key variable, the marital status of emigrants, which would have provided an informative tool for studying the loyalties of migrants who are married, and whether they remit more to a household which contains their spouse. However, using the relationship status with reference to the household head (such as husband, wife, daughter-in-law and son-in-law) we can at least determine to some extent whether marital status impacts loyalties and likelihood of remitting.