NIAS Area Studies


PAKISTAN READER

PR Commentary

Photo Source:
   NIAS Course on Global Politics
National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS)
Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore
For any further information or to subscribe to GP alerts send an email to subachandran@nias.res.in

CWA # 2284, 1 September 2026
PR Explainer
Pakistan's External Labour Migration:

  Abhimanyu Solanki

In July 2026, Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Employment presented a report in the Senate on overseas employment. The report stated that more than 15 million Pakistanis have travelled abroad for employment over the past five decades. During FY 2026, 356,674 Pakistanis proceeded abroad for the purpose of employment. Overseas employment remains a major economic outlet for Pakistan’s economy. As per State Bank of Pakistan data, workers' remittances remain one of the country’s largest sources of foreign exchange. In FY26, worker remittances reached USD 41.6 billion up 8.6 per cent. In July 2026 alone, Worker’s remittances reached USD 3.6 billion up 13 per cent year on year.

Who gets the highest registrations for overseas employment?
As per Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BE&OE) data, in first five months of 2026, a total of 278,563 Pakistani workers registered for overseas employment. Overwhelmingly the majority of registrations continue to be for low and semi-skilled occupations, with labourers and drivers dominating the migration landscape. Labourers constituted the largest category during January- May 2026, with 171,206 registrations. Drivers ranked second with 52,652 registrations. To resolve this and supply skilled human resources, the government has formulated a National Emigration and Welfare Policy 2026. In July 2026, Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development also launched its National Emigration and Welfare Policy. The aim of the policy is to become a global supplier of human resources. This policy will play a significant role as the number of people seeking employment abroad is increasing day by day. In 2025 alone, 762,499 Pakistani workers entered the overseas market. In 2025, 69.54 per cent of total registered overseas workers, that is 530,256 of the 762,499 Pakistani workers, entered Saudi Arabia’s labour market.

Why does Saudi Arabia dominate Pakistan’s overseas employment market?
Geographical proximity remains one factor. Another factor remains the government policy. According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2025-26, under a labor mobility strategy, government has developed a long-term plan to send one million workers to Saudi Arabia by 2030. This labour strategy is aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 of diversifying its economy away from the oil industry. 

What causes the migration?
The Pakistan economy has been in turmoil for years. High unemployment rates, soaring food prices leading to food insecurity, and inflation rates pushing lakhs of Pakistanis to look for overseas employment. The Economic Survey 2025-26 shows Pakistan’s labour force has 5.9 million unemployed people. Currency depreciation, increased taxes, rising living costs, and declining wage rates further put pressure on households. Climate change remains another factor, as Pakistan has witnessed frequent catastrophic floods displacing millions of people along with economic losses. Also, the sluggish growth rate of the industrial sector is leading to domestic joblessness. Particularly the textile industry, which used to be an export-oriented industry with large scale employment, is in crisis. With a rise in production costs, textile exports are dwindling at a fast pace.

What are the challenges and vulnerabilities for Pakistan?
As most of the overseas employment by Pakistanis remains limited to labourer and semi-skilled jobs market, Pakistan has yet to fully tap rising global demand for skilled professionals in healthcare, IT, engineering, and education. For that purpose, government has to expand vocational and technical training in alignment with Gulf and Western labor demand. Also, illegal migration remains one of the most difficult challenges. According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), “IOM Missing Migrants Project 2026,” a total of 109 Pakistanis were among the 2,722 persons from the Asia Pacific region who died or disappeared around the world in 2025. Pakistan remained third in number of nationals who died or disappeared during migration. In February 2025, 11 Pakistanis lost their lives in a migrant tragedy in Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya. These incidents raise concerns over Pakistan's government policies on youth employment in the country. Similarly, the recent large-scale deportations raise the concern, as 21,951 Pakistanis were deported from Gulf countries between 1 March and 13 July 2026; Saudi Arabia accounted for the largest share at 15,495, followed by the UAE with 3,803, Oman with 1,606. Although experts believe that repercussions on the economy will be limited, this raises concerns over sudden hardships on thousands of households, which can move into poverty due to deportations. Hence, the government should focus on creating stronger domestic employment opportunities, so migration remains a choice rather than an economic necessity.

To conclude, for Pakistan, overseas employment remains indispensable. It generates foreign exchange without creating public debt or requiring profit repatriation. Remittances exceeded all merchandise export earnings in FY26, helping the government compensate for its weak exports. However, its concentration in low-skilled labour and heavy dependence on Gulf markets exposes structural weaknesses in domestic employment generation. A country cannot depend heavily on the overseas market to absorb its workforce. Overseas employment does help Pakistan's in solving its foreign-exchange problem but does not solve its underlying employment problem. Therefore, Pakistan needs to move towards strengthening bilateral labour agreements and creating employment opportunities domestically. Overseas migration can provide an important economic opportunity for Pakistan, but it should complement, rather than substitute, domestic employment generation.

References
1. The Express Tribune. (2026, August 13). Over 317k workers seek jobs abroad. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2623579/over-317k-workers-seek-jobs-abroad 
2. Pakistan Today. (2026, July 9). Over 15 million Pakistanis have gone abroad for jobs, Senate told. https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2026/07/09/over-15-million-pakistanis-have-gone-abroad-for-jobs-senate-told
3. Dawn. (2026, April 1). 109 illegal migrants from Pakistan died or went missing last year: International Organisation for Migration. https://www.dawn.com/news/1987332 
4. The Express Tribune. (2026). Overseas job registrations hit 278,563.
 https://tribune.com.pk/story/2614165/overseas-job-registrations-hit-278563 

5. The Express Tribune. (2026). PM directs embassies to boost overseas jobs.
 https://tribune.com.pk/story/2616905/pm-directs-embassies-to-boost-overseas-jobs

7. Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE). (2025). Workers’ Remittances: A Pivotal Role in Pakistan’s Economy. 
https://pide.org.pk/research/workers-remittances-a-pivotal-role-in-pakistans-economy/ 

8. Dawn. (2026). Workers' remittances hit record $41.6bn in FY26. 
https://www.dawn.com/news/2014137

9. Arab News Pakistan. (2025). Pakistan aligns labor strategy with Saudi Vision 2030, targets 1 million workers by 2030. 
https://www.arabnews.pk/node/2649081/pakistan

10. The Express Tribune. (2026). Deportations expose Gulf job reliance. 
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2626329/deportations-expose-gulf-job-reliance

Print Bookmark

PREVIOUS PR Commentary

PR Takeaways
September 2026 | CWA # 2283

Radhika M Agarwal | Radhika M Agarwal is currently an intern at the National Institute of Advanced Studies and is a postgraduate student in the department of Politics and International Relations at Pandit Deendayal Energy University, Gandhinagar.

Pakistan's Blue Economy Crisis:
PR Explainer
September 2026 | CWA # 2282

Madhura Meenakshi Tanikella | Madhura Meenakshi Tanikella is an undergraduate student from the Department of Political Science, School of Liberal Arts, Alliance University, Bengaluru. She is currently an intern at NIAS.

Pakistan’s National Commission for Minorities:
PR Commentary
July 2026 | CWA # 2220

Dhivya KM | Dhivya KM is a Research Intern at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru. She is currently pursuing an MA in Financial Economics at the Madras School of Economics, with research interests spanning financial markets and geopoliti

Pakistan's Federal Budget FY2026-27:
PR Review
June 2026 | CWA # 2191

Dhivya KM | Dhivya K M is an intern at NIAS and is also a postgraduate student of MA Financial Economics at the Madras School of Economics, Chennai.

Pakistan's Economy in the Second Quarter:
CW Note
July 2026 | CWA # 2171

Radhika M Agarwal | Radhika M Agarwal is a postgraduate student at the Department of Politics and International Relations in Pandit Deendayal Energy University, Gandhinagar.

The Unrest in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK): 
Global Politics Review: WPF Report 2026
June 2026 | CWA # 2140

Nithin V | Nithin V is a postgraduate student in International Relations, with an interest in geopolitics, international political economy, and climate governance. He is currently an intern at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru. 

Pakistan and Press Freedom:
Pakistan Reader
October 2021 | CWA # 588

Abigail Miriam Fernandez

TLP is back again