Sri Lanka’s labour migration trends, remittances and economic growth

Abstract

Labour migration has significant multiple impacts for Sri Lanka, where migrant remittances have massively increased over time. In the light of changing migrant worker dynamics, including state involvement in virtually exporting people, this article examines various trends of labour migration and then specifically analyses remittance inflows and their economic impacts in Sri Lanka between 1970 and 2015. Our findings confirm the increasing importance of remittances as a source of external financing, with considerable impetus for domestic economic growth, related development policies and gender issues. The conclusions make some suggestions to safeguard future remittance inflows to Sri Lanka.