AKM Ahsan Ullah is Associate Professor in Geography Environment and Development at the University of Brunei Darussalam (UBD). Ullah’s research portfolio includes stints at the Southeast Asian Research Centre (SEARC), Hong Kong
COVID-19 has had a negative impact on the majority of rising economies since 2020. The economic e... more COVID-19 has had a negative impact on the majority of rising economies since 2020. The economic effects of the majority of countries were mixed as a result of the lockdown measure they enacted. Economic conditions have a significant impact on the spread of pandemics, as history has proved. This article concentrates on India in order to ascertain the relationship between migration, FDI, and COVID-19. We undertake this study to determine whether labour movement (in/out) inside COVID-19 has an effect on FDI influx. Our research—based on qualitative secondary sources—reveals that multinational corporations prefer native workers over imported personnel in India due to the country’s abundant skilled manpower. This implies that multinational corporations can replace foreign workers with locally employed workers if they can find suitable candidates among the local labour force. According to our findings, FDI and skilled migration to India appear to be linked.
Remittances have been one of the most critical components of the population migration debate. Sin... more Remittances have been one of the most critical components of the population migration debate. Since migration has been studied academically, the ‘remittance equals cash’ idea has dominated other types of remittances. This study focuses on in-kind remittances, which are transfers of goods and services sent by migrants (other than money) from their destination country. We examined the literature using content analysis. The research investigates how a nation takes shape through the injection of remittances in kind (RK) brought by ‘migrant populations’ of both origins and destinations, using empirical and theoretical evidence. RK are worth considering for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is that they play an essential part in international collectivist development. Second, they highlight the societal effects of migration. Third, they have a chance of gaining public support. With great transformative power, RK has the capacity to alter a nation’s economy, values and life...
Four new zoonotic coronaviruses outbreak occurred in the past two decades. The first coronavirus ... more Four new zoonotic coronaviruses outbreak occurred in the past two decades. The first coronavirus outbreak happened in 2003 and was named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-1 (SARS-CoV-1), followed by Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2013, and by Swine Acute Diarrhoea Syndrome (SADS) in 2017. In late December 2019, a patient from Wuhan Seafood Wholesale Market, China, was admitted to Huang's hospital with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) of apparently unknown etiology, which later was diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2-induced coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 was identified from another clade within the subgenus Sarbecovirus of the genus Betacoronavirus. This new CoV variant showed 96.2% similarity at whole-genome level to bat coronavirus. Based on genetic studies, pangolin, bats, and snakes are suspected to be a possible intermediate host of this virus, but further research is in progress to determine how this virus appeared and what i...
This introductory article contextualises the ongoing pandemic and the significance of this themed... more This introductory article contextualises the ongoing pandemic and the significance of this themed issue by highlighting the relevance of the seven articles in this issue. All the articles have identified different intersections between Asia Pacific’s migrant population and the global pandemic and demonstrated from various perspectives how the COVID-19 pandemic have had an impact on the migrant population in Asia Pacific. The common thread that binds the articles throughout the entire issue is that the pandemic has disproportionately affected the migrant population.
Migration has appeared as a constitutive aspect of global reality today. While the COVID-19 pande... more Migration has appeared as a constitutive aspect of global reality today. While the COVID-19 pandemic has spared no single community, the migrant population has been the hardest hit. The woes of this population have been exacerbated by imposed immobility, restrictions, xenophobic treatment, residential status, poor living conditions, and limited access to health and protection. Millions of jobs have vanished. Millions of migrants got stranded either in their destination or origin countries and are unsure if they can return to their work. Against this backdrop, they try to stand up by seeking resilience. This study looks into how migrants in varying situations—those who returned home, those trapped in transit, and those who remained in the host nations—gain stability in the devastating pandemic. While a wealth of literature has been generated, the issue of migrants’ resilience has received little attention. This article employs content analysis to examine the gravity of the impact of ...
ABSTRACT There has been little research on the significance of religion in migration studies. The... more ABSTRACT There has been little research on the significance of religion in migration studies. The objective of this article is twofold: first, to explain religion as a complexly intertwined concept within migration discourses; second, to examine the implications of various terminologies such as Islamism, political Islam, and the politicization of Islam in the modern world within a broad migration framework. We have chosen 11 respondents from different countries by snow-ball technique to interview. The paper argues that religion becomes crucial to people's migratory experiences, aiming to construct a theoretically informed link between religion and migration. The study emphasizes the significance of international standards in ensuring migrants’ ‘religious rights’ in host countries. The interesting thing is that migrants bring their religious beliefs, practices, and way of life with them, enriching destination countries by exposing them to new cultures and fostering social cohesiveness via peaceful coexistence.
Tolosa-Hunt Syndrome is a painful ophthalmoplegia which is characterized by periorbital or hemicr... more Tolosa-Hunt Syndrome is a painful ophthalmoplegia which is characterized by periorbital or hemicranial pain, with ipsilateral ocular motor nerve palsies, oculosympathetic paralysis, sensory loss in the distribution of the ophthalmic and occasionally the maxillary division of the trigeminal nerve. Various combinations of these cranial nerve palsies may occur, localising the pathological process to the region of the cavernous sinus/superior orbital fissure. We report the case of a patient presented with severe pain in the right side of face which was periorbital with ipsilateral 3rd,4th, 6th cranial nerve palsies along with ophthalmic and maxillary division of trigeminal nerve involvement. MRI of orbit showed hypo-intense lesion in right cavernous sinus extending to right superior orbital fissure (suggestive of granulomatous infiltration). After taking oral steroid her pain was relieved quickly and cranial nerve palsies reversed within one week. Azathioprin was added and she was compl...
Population mobility continues. However, debates on international migration have not gone unchalle... more Population mobility continues. However, debates on international migration have not gone unchallenged. Claims are there that migration is still governed by outmoded notions about human mobility and is hampered by inadequate policy and legal frameworks, and overriding security concerns stifles it. The most important question we are asking whether development is negotiable between remittances received at a range of costs migrants and the origin countries pay. While our globalized labour markets need migrants, human rights issues have severely been compromised. Growing numbers of parents leave their families and children behind to take up “temporary” employment overseas. This creates a transnational family where children are geographically separated from one or both parents for an extended period of time. Millions of children are currently growing up in the absence of their parents. This implies that the social cost of migration can be very high, particularly due to the lack of parenta...
This chapter advances with an approach to researching and analysing migration processes that comb... more This chapter advances with an approach to researching and analysing migration processes that combine a livelihood approach to exploring migration dynamics with a relational political economy perspective that deepens understanding of the broader social, economic and political processes. Basic economic theory provides many predictions with regard to the costs and benefits of migrants to home and host countries. Migration affects production, employment and wages, assimilation and attitudes towards migration, economic behaviour of the local population and migrants, international trade, etc. in both the host and home countries. In the wake of the rebirth of academic interest in political economy approaches in the 1990s, the argument was advanced for a ‘gendered political economy’. Feminist scholars have for long stressed the need for fostering a greater understanding of political economy models as inherently gendered, through critiquing economistic concepts such as ‘rational choice’, the...
Migration research is fresher than the phenomenon itself. This is because migration phenomenon re... more Migration research is fresher than the phenomenon itself. This is because migration phenomenon received delayed attention from researchers, academia, policy makers and international communities. This resulted in deficiencies in unified-but-suitable migration research methods for different geopolitical locales. Migration specific methodologies for research has not yet emerged in a unified manner, therefore, a void in knowledge persists resulting in the growing dilemmas in conducting research in conditions wherein, through and from migrants move over. In founding our texts for the book, we refer to the landmark literature, and dominant theories that have shaped the book. One of the very first explanatory approaches to both internal and international migration focused on individual decision-making. For several scholars, decisions to migrate can only be understood in a global context. In developing countries, debate on the economic effects of migration has taken a radically different tu...
The circumstances prevailing in South Asia (SA) have led to a plateauing migration stream that ha... more The circumstances prevailing in South Asia (SA) have led to a plateauing migration stream that has resulted in several categories of migrants. The underlying factors driving migration have been identical in all the countries of SA. In recent years, however, poverty, conflicts, political and religious persecution, natural disasters and climate change have emerged as the most prominent drivers. External migration flow from SA has more than doubled between 2000 and 2015. This is a dynamic region, with millions (over 38m in 2017) of people crossing borders, both intra-regionally and extra-regionally. In recent years, wealthy citizens from SA have begun to move out of their countries with the intention of settling down elsewhere. This tendency has raised concerns among the policy makers because they create the grounds for reverse remittance flows. This research is meant to identify and contribute to the discourse of a new category of migrants (non-conventional migration) who are differen...
Almost all the countries in the world have now enforced coronavirus-related travel restrictions a... more Almost all the countries in the world have now enforced coronavirus-related travel restrictions and border shutdowns. Migrant populations in the world are now considered the worst victims of Covid-19, and the spreaders, too. This paper aims to investigate the impacts that COVID-19 has on the population migration. Informal interviews have been conducted with respondents who are stranded in different parts of the world via skype and whatsapp between February and April 2020. COVID-19 poses a threat to the millions who were caught between home and their final destination – and are now living in overcrowded refugee camps where the terms ‘stay home’ ‘stay safe’ and social distancing carry very little meaning.
Today, just as happens every day, many thousands of people throughout the world will be setting o... more Today, just as happens every day, many thousands of people throughout the world will be setting off on journeys in the hope of being able to forge safe and meaningful lives in a new country. Some will be carrying passports containing visas issued by the country to which they are heading, many having gone through visa application processes to secure the right to start a new phase of their lives in another country. These people will most likely be able to choose many aspects of this new phase: their new job or vocation; the city in which they intend to live; the mode of travel they will take; the timing and length of their journey; with whom they go; and how long they intend to stay. They should be considered the luckier ones, and more likely than not, they will be citizens of developed countries.
Background: Abnormal glucose metabolism is an independent risk factor for poor outcome following ... more Background: Abnormal glucose metabolism is an independent risk factor for poor outcome following acute ischemic stroke. Objective: To evaluate the association between high HbA1c level and poor functional outcome in new onset ischemic stroke patient with diabetes mellitus. Method: This Cross sectional study was carried out in the Department of Neurology, BSMMU, Dhaka, from February 2013 to September 2014 on 50 patients with first attack of ischemic stroke with DM. modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and HbA1c were measured on 14th day of the stroke. During this period other important relevant investigations were also recorded. Result: Majority of the patients (40.0%) were in age group 51-60 years. The mean age was 58.9 ± 9.6 years with a range from 30 to 75 years. Males were 52.0% and females were 48.0%. Male to female ratio was 1.08:1. It was observed that more than one third (36.0%) patients were current smoker, 9(18.0%) were former smoker and 23(46.0%) were non smoker. Majority of the 29(...
COVID-19 has had a negative impact on the majority of rising economies since 2020. The economic e... more COVID-19 has had a negative impact on the majority of rising economies since 2020. The economic effects of the majority of countries were mixed as a result of the lockdown measure they enacted. Economic conditions have a significant impact on the spread of pandemics, as history has proved. This article concentrates on India in order to ascertain the relationship between migration, FDI, and COVID-19. We undertake this study to determine whether labour movement (in/out) inside COVID-19 has an effect on FDI influx. Our research—based on qualitative secondary sources—reveals that multinational corporations prefer native workers over imported personnel in India due to the country’s abundant skilled manpower. This implies that multinational corporations can replace foreign workers with locally employed workers if they can find suitable candidates among the local labour force. According to our findings, FDI and skilled migration to India appear to be linked.
Remittances have been one of the most critical components of the population migration debate. Sin... more Remittances have been one of the most critical components of the population migration debate. Since migration has been studied academically, the ‘remittance equals cash’ idea has dominated other types of remittances. This study focuses on in-kind remittances, which are transfers of goods and services sent by migrants (other than money) from their destination country. We examined the literature using content analysis. The research investigates how a nation takes shape through the injection of remittances in kind (RK) brought by ‘migrant populations’ of both origins and destinations, using empirical and theoretical evidence. RK are worth considering for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is that they play an essential part in international collectivist development. Second, they highlight the societal effects of migration. Third, they have a chance of gaining public support. With great transformative power, RK has the capacity to alter a nation’s economy, values and life...
Four new zoonotic coronaviruses outbreak occurred in the past two decades. The first coronavirus ... more Four new zoonotic coronaviruses outbreak occurred in the past two decades. The first coronavirus outbreak happened in 2003 and was named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-1 (SARS-CoV-1), followed by Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2013, and by Swine Acute Diarrhoea Syndrome (SADS) in 2017. In late December 2019, a patient from Wuhan Seafood Wholesale Market, China, was admitted to Huang's hospital with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) of apparently unknown etiology, which later was diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2-induced coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 was identified from another clade within the subgenus Sarbecovirus of the genus Betacoronavirus. This new CoV variant showed 96.2% similarity at whole-genome level to bat coronavirus. Based on genetic studies, pangolin, bats, and snakes are suspected to be a possible intermediate host of this virus, but further research is in progress to determine how this virus appeared and what i...
This introductory article contextualises the ongoing pandemic and the significance of this themed... more This introductory article contextualises the ongoing pandemic and the significance of this themed issue by highlighting the relevance of the seven articles in this issue. All the articles have identified different intersections between Asia Pacific’s migrant population and the global pandemic and demonstrated from various perspectives how the COVID-19 pandemic have had an impact on the migrant population in Asia Pacific. The common thread that binds the articles throughout the entire issue is that the pandemic has disproportionately affected the migrant population.
Migration has appeared as a constitutive aspect of global reality today. While the COVID-19 pande... more Migration has appeared as a constitutive aspect of global reality today. While the COVID-19 pandemic has spared no single community, the migrant population has been the hardest hit. The woes of this population have been exacerbated by imposed immobility, restrictions, xenophobic treatment, residential status, poor living conditions, and limited access to health and protection. Millions of jobs have vanished. Millions of migrants got stranded either in their destination or origin countries and are unsure if they can return to their work. Against this backdrop, they try to stand up by seeking resilience. This study looks into how migrants in varying situations—those who returned home, those trapped in transit, and those who remained in the host nations—gain stability in the devastating pandemic. While a wealth of literature has been generated, the issue of migrants’ resilience has received little attention. This article employs content analysis to examine the gravity of the impact of ...
ABSTRACT There has been little research on the significance of religion in migration studies. The... more ABSTRACT There has been little research on the significance of religion in migration studies. The objective of this article is twofold: first, to explain religion as a complexly intertwined concept within migration discourses; second, to examine the implications of various terminologies such as Islamism, political Islam, and the politicization of Islam in the modern world within a broad migration framework. We have chosen 11 respondents from different countries by snow-ball technique to interview. The paper argues that religion becomes crucial to people's migratory experiences, aiming to construct a theoretically informed link between religion and migration. The study emphasizes the significance of international standards in ensuring migrants’ ‘religious rights’ in host countries. The interesting thing is that migrants bring their religious beliefs, practices, and way of life with them, enriching destination countries by exposing them to new cultures and fostering social cohesiveness via peaceful coexistence.
Tolosa-Hunt Syndrome is a painful ophthalmoplegia which is characterized by periorbital or hemicr... more Tolosa-Hunt Syndrome is a painful ophthalmoplegia which is characterized by periorbital or hemicranial pain, with ipsilateral ocular motor nerve palsies, oculosympathetic paralysis, sensory loss in the distribution of the ophthalmic and occasionally the maxillary division of the trigeminal nerve. Various combinations of these cranial nerve palsies may occur, localising the pathological process to the region of the cavernous sinus/superior orbital fissure. We report the case of a patient presented with severe pain in the right side of face which was periorbital with ipsilateral 3rd,4th, 6th cranial nerve palsies along with ophthalmic and maxillary division of trigeminal nerve involvement. MRI of orbit showed hypo-intense lesion in right cavernous sinus extending to right superior orbital fissure (suggestive of granulomatous infiltration). After taking oral steroid her pain was relieved quickly and cranial nerve palsies reversed within one week. Azathioprin was added and she was compl...
Population mobility continues. However, debates on international migration have not gone unchalle... more Population mobility continues. However, debates on international migration have not gone unchallenged. Claims are there that migration is still governed by outmoded notions about human mobility and is hampered by inadequate policy and legal frameworks, and overriding security concerns stifles it. The most important question we are asking whether development is negotiable between remittances received at a range of costs migrants and the origin countries pay. While our globalized labour markets need migrants, human rights issues have severely been compromised. Growing numbers of parents leave their families and children behind to take up “temporary” employment overseas. This creates a transnational family where children are geographically separated from one or both parents for an extended period of time. Millions of children are currently growing up in the absence of their parents. This implies that the social cost of migration can be very high, particularly due to the lack of parenta...
This chapter advances with an approach to researching and analysing migration processes that comb... more This chapter advances with an approach to researching and analysing migration processes that combine a livelihood approach to exploring migration dynamics with a relational political economy perspective that deepens understanding of the broader social, economic and political processes. Basic economic theory provides many predictions with regard to the costs and benefits of migrants to home and host countries. Migration affects production, employment and wages, assimilation and attitudes towards migration, economic behaviour of the local population and migrants, international trade, etc. in both the host and home countries. In the wake of the rebirth of academic interest in political economy approaches in the 1990s, the argument was advanced for a ‘gendered political economy’. Feminist scholars have for long stressed the need for fostering a greater understanding of political economy models as inherently gendered, through critiquing economistic concepts such as ‘rational choice’, the...
Migration research is fresher than the phenomenon itself. This is because migration phenomenon re... more Migration research is fresher than the phenomenon itself. This is because migration phenomenon received delayed attention from researchers, academia, policy makers and international communities. This resulted in deficiencies in unified-but-suitable migration research methods for different geopolitical locales. Migration specific methodologies for research has not yet emerged in a unified manner, therefore, a void in knowledge persists resulting in the growing dilemmas in conducting research in conditions wherein, through and from migrants move over. In founding our texts for the book, we refer to the landmark literature, and dominant theories that have shaped the book. One of the very first explanatory approaches to both internal and international migration focused on individual decision-making. For several scholars, decisions to migrate can only be understood in a global context. In developing countries, debate on the economic effects of migration has taken a radically different tu...
The circumstances prevailing in South Asia (SA) have led to a plateauing migration stream that ha... more The circumstances prevailing in South Asia (SA) have led to a plateauing migration stream that has resulted in several categories of migrants. The underlying factors driving migration have been identical in all the countries of SA. In recent years, however, poverty, conflicts, political and religious persecution, natural disasters and climate change have emerged as the most prominent drivers. External migration flow from SA has more than doubled between 2000 and 2015. This is a dynamic region, with millions (over 38m in 2017) of people crossing borders, both intra-regionally and extra-regionally. In recent years, wealthy citizens from SA have begun to move out of their countries with the intention of settling down elsewhere. This tendency has raised concerns among the policy makers because they create the grounds for reverse remittance flows. This research is meant to identify and contribute to the discourse of a new category of migrants (non-conventional migration) who are differen...
Almost all the countries in the world have now enforced coronavirus-related travel restrictions a... more Almost all the countries in the world have now enforced coronavirus-related travel restrictions and border shutdowns. Migrant populations in the world are now considered the worst victims of Covid-19, and the spreaders, too. This paper aims to investigate the impacts that COVID-19 has on the population migration. Informal interviews have been conducted with respondents who are stranded in different parts of the world via skype and whatsapp between February and April 2020. COVID-19 poses a threat to the millions who were caught between home and their final destination – and are now living in overcrowded refugee camps where the terms ‘stay home’ ‘stay safe’ and social distancing carry very little meaning.
Today, just as happens every day, many thousands of people throughout the world will be setting o... more Today, just as happens every day, many thousands of people throughout the world will be setting off on journeys in the hope of being able to forge safe and meaningful lives in a new country. Some will be carrying passports containing visas issued by the country to which they are heading, many having gone through visa application processes to secure the right to start a new phase of their lives in another country. These people will most likely be able to choose many aspects of this new phase: their new job or vocation; the city in which they intend to live; the mode of travel they will take; the timing and length of their journey; with whom they go; and how long they intend to stay. They should be considered the luckier ones, and more likely than not, they will be citizens of developed countries.
Background: Abnormal glucose metabolism is an independent risk factor for poor outcome following ... more Background: Abnormal glucose metabolism is an independent risk factor for poor outcome following acute ischemic stroke. Objective: To evaluate the association between high HbA1c level and poor functional outcome in new onset ischemic stroke patient with diabetes mellitus. Method: This Cross sectional study was carried out in the Department of Neurology, BSMMU, Dhaka, from February 2013 to September 2014 on 50 patients with first attack of ischemic stroke with DM. modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and HbA1c were measured on 14th day of the stroke. During this period other important relevant investigations were also recorded. Result: Majority of the patients (40.0%) were in age group 51-60 years. The mean age was 58.9 ± 9.6 years with a range from 30 to 75 years. Males were 52.0% and females were 48.0%. Male to female ratio was 1.08:1. It was observed that more than one third (36.0%) patients were current smoker, 9(18.0%) were former smoker and 23(46.0%) were non smoker. Majority of the 29(...
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Papers by Akm Ullah