Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR) ISSN No: 2319-5614 Volume 2, No.10, October 2013 _________________________________________________________________________________ www.borjournals.com Blue Ocean Research Journals 40 Is Emigration of Workforce a Foreign Exchange Earner or a Modern Slavery? ALEX A. A. BRUCE, Department Of Accountancy, Faculty Of Commerce And Managemeent Studies, University Of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka ABSTRACT Foreign exchange earning substantiates a financial situation at which foreign currencies is earned through activities of trade to boost a country’s foreign accounts and reserves. Such moneys are generated through the export of goods and/or services and trading securities on the international capital markets. Although each of these accounts for a given percentage contribution to the reserve account yet much is required to peruse these sources in order to prioritize the most required and justifiable sources to achieve maximum advantage. This paper seeks to examine one aspect of these avenues which entail the trade of services in the form of workforce migration from Sri Lanka to the western and other parts of the world in search of livelihood. The questions posed are; does the government of Sri Lanka encourage all kinds of movements because remittances in foreign currencies are made to boost its reserves? Which classes of workforce prominently migrate and how is it perceived in this modern world after many decades of the collapse of slavery? Data from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka annual report supplied by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment is use to ascertain the average number of the workforce from 2009-2011 that migrate based on professionals, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled so as to compare the percentage of persons probably engage in the foreign lands. Other related literature was obtained from articles, books and internet websites. The study finds that the emigrants is made up of housemaids and unskilled-labour (66.3%), skilled (25.7%), Professionals (1.2%), middle level and clerical related (5.7%) and semi-skilled labour (1.9%), which shows that most of the emigrants are labourers like the slaves of the past in Europe and other parts of the world who engage in servant-hood jobs, probable anti- morale economic activities and other meaner jobs. This debunks the idea that the emigration rate in Sri Lanka is an important economic contributor of foreign exchange. The study identified the situation as a “modern and disguised slavery” where shops are opened up by businessmen and women who claim to seek foreign jobs for people at a price. It is suggested that, the government should quickly redeem its image in the international community by discouraging this dastardly act of slavery and train professionals who can be worth what the government need for service exchange. Key words: Foreign Exchange, Emigration, workforce, Labourer, and Modern disguised Slavery I. Introduction Foreign exchange earning substantiates a financial situation at which foreign currencies is earned through activities of trade to boost a country’s foreign accounts and reserves. Such moneys are generated through the export of goods and/or services and trading securities on the international capital markets. Foreign exchange earnings are proceeds from the export of goods and services of a country and the returns from its foreign investments denominated in convertible currencies (The Business Dictionary, 2012). Each of these accounts for a given percentage contribution to the reserve account, yet much is required to peruse these sources in order to prioritize the most required and justifiable sources to achieve maximum advantage. The composition of foreign exchange earnings is made-up of proceeds from international trade in goods and services and remittances of its workforce abroad as well as fund mobilizations on the capital markets in foreign countries. These account for a given percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In most cases, remittances from abroad form a separate percentage of the GDP in recent reports of governments of nations. Mughal (2012) states that the role the expatriate workers play in the development of a country is set to increase significantly as the remittance they send to their home countries; now recognized to be the single major source of contribution in its GDP is constantly increasing; the world Bank, the IMF, the UNCTAD and OECD have realized and accepted the fact that remittances have played a major role in the development of manpower exporting countries and improved the living standard of its people thereby reducing poverty. Emigration of workforce is not an evil omen in itself except if there is a “push” on the workforce. Otherwise, nations develop through exchange of knowledge and expertise. This means that, the exchange of such knowledge and expertise can only be realized via professionals and highly skilled workforce who apart from the knowledge sharing and expertise manipulations, will in-turn earn substantial pay which accrue to the growth of the home country inform of remittances, contributing to the foreign