ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the connections between construction work and rural-urban labour migration in Bangladesh, with a particular focus on Dhaka. It explains the structural context and socio-economic dimensions of rural-urban labour migration for construction work, and explores the prevailing conditions of employment in Dhaka’s construction projects that attract the labourers to move from their villages. In doing this, it analyses why the rural labourers continue to migrate to cities for construction work that is predominantly regarded as a low-status job. The chapter identifies some factors to contextualise the rationale for choosing construction work over other available employment opportunities in the capital city of Bangladesh. It provides the migrant construction workers’ own perspectives and reasons for this. Their accounts reveal a range of comparative advantages that they consider in choosing construction work over other options. The hardship they accept in the city is a necessary cost in their quest for a better earning.
