When we first recruited Diarist 57 her husband was in jail in Malaysia. He had gone there 9 years before and hadn't been home since. He had overstayed his Malaysian visa and Diarist 57 had been unable to contact him for more than three months. But in August 2017 he suddenly arrived home, looking very sick. He took a garments factory job but soon gave up and turned to casual labouring jobs like brickbreaking. Meanwhile Diarist 57 continued her job as a fieldworker for a Co-operative (not the one that shares our office) , at about 6,000 taka a month, and was looking after their three children, all of them in school. In August 2019 her husband got a job as a bank ATM guard, a job he still has, now at 8,000 taka a month.
In 2018 the eldest son was 19 and sought but failed to get a job in Chittagong, after which his parents started planning to send him abroad. In June 2019 they paid an agent to arrange it. However, it was in June 2021, and after more payments to the agent and various tests, that he eventually flew to Saudi Arabia. He started remitting, allowing the couple to start paying down debt.
In the Covid period her Co-operative was closed and she effectively lost her job. She started work as a housemaid, and took some training in sewing. In late 2021 she started work in a garments factory, initially as a cleaner but then as a 'finisher' on 10,000 taka a month. She held that job up to October 2023 and then went back to being a housemaid. But in late 2024 she again got a job as a fieldworker in another Co-op, now for 8,500 taka a month. The son in Saudi has now started spending money on a project to get his younger brother to join him.
The daughter has suffered from continual poor health but has proved a good student and has recently entered a nursing training college. There was a brief prospect of marriage but nothing has yet come of it.
In chart 01 we see how things were difficult until the son arrived in Saudi and started remitting. Since then the household has managed a surplus more often than not on a a monthly basis. The only big transactions are those to do with the migration - the rest is ordinary small-ticket receipts of income, and household expenditure.
