Immigrant workers need recognition and representation

Immigrant workers are our assets. And it’s important to use the adjective ‘immigrant’ here and not migrant. This is because migration is for those who go abroad illegally and for birds who fly from country to country to escape adverse weather conditions.

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But to make these workers ‘assets,’ much has to be done on their behalf. We only talk about the US dollars they contribute to the Sri Lankan economy. But we all know that when they work abroad there is little support from Sri Lankan authorities. The situation is so negative that literature about immigrant workers highlights the fact that the Sri Lankan Foreign Service is weak. Immigrants also complain that the support for them from Sri Lankan Foreign Service officials is also insufficient.

It is in an environment like this that immigrant workers have scored well for Sri Lanka. These workers are the biggest foreign income earners of this island. But there is no representation for them, nor enough recognition back in Sri Lanka.

Critics point out that even the disabled community is now represented in parliament with the advent of the NPP regime. But that cannot be said about the immigrant workers. It is high time that immigrant workers have their representative in parliament and also the Sri Lanka Bureau for Foreign Employment.