South Asia Migration Report 2020

Exploitation, Entrepreneurship and Engagement

S. Irudaya Rajan

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367674380
• eBook ISBN: 9781000090505
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Immigration Law
• Index: Social Sciences

South Asia Migration Report 2020 documents key themes of exploitation and entrepreneurship of migrants from the region.

This volume:

• Includes dedicated fieldwork from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal;

• Analyses the impact of South-Asia-migrant-established businesses;

• Examines legal and legislative recourse against exploitation in destination countries;

• Factors in how migration as a phenomenon negotiates with gender, environment and even healthcare.

This book will be indispensable for scholars and researchers of economics, development studies, migration and diaspora studies, gender studies, labour studies and sociology. It will also be useful to policymakers, think tanks and government institutions working in the area.

1
Gendered migration and its impacts on women’s agency and resilience in Pakistan

Ahmad Shah Durrani and Ayesha Qaisrani

1.1 Introduction

The development discourse is increasingly exploring the migration–resilience nexus, especially in the context of communities prone to crises (Scheffran et al., 2012). Indeed, recent studies have found that households with at least one migrant member – usually male – have more stable financial positions, expanded opportunities for investment in physical and human capital, improved stocks of knowledge, skills and social capital, and, hence, greater resilience than households with no migrants (Salik et al., 2017; Scheffran et al., 2012). However, in exploring migratory impacts at the household level, these studies tend to overlook the work on migration from a gender lens, which may influence female autonomy positively or negatively (Ullah, 2017). Male out-migration may enhance female autonomy through more economic empowerment and decision-making authority (Hugo, 2000); or it may impact them adversely through a rise in responsibilities without any change in their autonomy (Gioli et al., 2014). In fact, in South Asia in general and Pakistan in particular, women – who are excluded from migration processes and required to remain behind in sending communities in predominantly caregiving roles after the migration of other (usually male) family members – often contend with mobility restrictions, limited decision-making authority and control over household resources, poor labour force participation and limited community participation once their husbands or other male guardians migrate (Paris et al., 2005; Gioli et al., 2014). These constraints can effectively reduce women’s individual capacity to respond to crisis events, and may also have bearing on resilience at the household level, as well.

Acknowledging this gap, the present study seeks to put forward a gendered view of the migration–resilience nexus and argue for the mainstreaming of gender in crisis management policies and programmatic action. Using qualitative information gathered from twenty women in flood-affected households from Dera Ghazi Khan (D. G. Khan) and conflict-affected households displaced in Bannu, the authors highlight: i) changes in gender roles and female agency wrought by male migration; and ii) the impact of these changes on resilience at the individual and household levels. The authors find that male migration improves resilience at the household level in terms of improved financial position and expanded opportunities to invest in human and physical capital. However, the role of intra-household dynamics and family structure was critical in determining the extent of this improvement. As explored in this study, respondents were better able to invest in their children’s health and education (i.e. human capital) if they lived independently and did not have to contend with competing demands on household income prevalent in a joint family system. Further, while female respondents living independently experienced increased decision-making authority and control over household income and resources, they still faced restrictions on mobility and employment, causing them to rely heavily on husbands and other male family members, both in day-to-day life and in the context of crisis events. In this context, it is imperative to highlight constraints on agency of women for more gender inclusive and better-informed resilience planning and crisis management mechanisms. Against this background, this study explores changes in the financial, social and political empowerment of women through the lens of access to and control over resources, agency and achievements through a qualitative approach, and proposes policy actions for making the resilient building process more gender sensitive.

1.2 Literature review

1.2.1 Gendered migration and left-behind women’s agency

The study of labour migration and its impacts has evolved into three major strands. The first strand focuses on the impacts of migration on those migrating within and across international borders, both male and female (McEvoy et al., 2012, 370). The second and third strands of this field study how migration impacts migrant-receiving areas (Mohapatra et al., 2010) and migrant-sending areas (Katseli et al., 2006, 25–33), respectively, especially from a social and development context.

While the gender perspective has received an in-depth exploration in the first two strands of literature previously mentioned, considerably less attention has been paid to women staying behind in sending communities after their husbands have migrated in search of work (Desai and Banerji, 2008, 337). Yet, there is significant evidence that migration processes are highly selective of men. This is especially true of developing countries, where women with migrant husbands are required to stay behind and look after the family unit in origin areas (Lokshin and Glinskaya, 2009, 482). Only 42% of all transnational labour migrants from developing countries are women (Kenny and O’Donnel, 2016).¹ Similarly, in countries like India and Pakistan, women are more likely to remain in their places of origin, even if their husbands have migrated to another state/province within the country (Desai and Banerji, 2008, 337; Gioli et al., 2014; Salik et al., 2017).

Such patterns of migration are reinforced by a confluence of economic, socio-cultural, legal-institutional and policy-level factors. The process of labour migration occurs in a wider social context where migration decisions are taken by the family – not the individual – as a risk-minimisation strategy (Haas and van Rooij, 2010). Women, especially from rural areas, thus lack access to resources essential for migration (i.e. information, funds, asset ownership and social networks), which are usually controlled by other, usually male members of the family (United Nations, 2011). Labour market conditions for women migrants – placement in a defined set of ‘female occupations or positions that do not always match their qualifications, lower average wages compared to men working in the same jobs, unemployment and underemployment, etc. – also ensure that families are more likely to support the migration of male members as a more viable investment option (Boyd and Grieco, 2003; Fleury, 2016). At the same time, families often assign women subordinate, caregiving roles, which are reinforced by gender norms that restrict ‘good wives/women’ from migrating or venturing outside the home (Fleury, 2016). Finally, laws, immigration policies and institutions in both origin and destination countries serve to restrict women’s migration. A number of labour-exporting countries have laws that restrict women’s mobility and their ability to migrate inside and outside the country without the permission of male guardians (Fleury, 2016; Boyd and Grieco, 2003). Similarly, many labour-importing countries have enacted immigration policies that make it easier for women to immigrate as spouses or dependents of male migrants, while also restricting women migrants from legally sponsoring their husbands’ immigration (Desai and Banerji, 2008). These factors continually reproduce gendered patterns of migration whereby women stay behind in places of origin after migration of their husbands or other male relatives.

Literature on this group of women, a relatively recent addition to the field of migration studies, has focused on whether male migration has emancipa-tory effects on the lives of women remaining behind, especially in terms of their: i) role and decision-making power in the household; ii) access to and control over resources; iii) mobility; iv) involvement in community and social networks; and v) labour force participation. Some studies have found a positive relationship between male migration and the emancipation or autonomy of the women remaining behind. Studying Albanian women whose husbands were both current and past international migrants using nationally representative housing and living standards measurement data, Mendola and Carletto (2009) found that, over time, male migration in households had the effect of increasing female paid self-employment and decreasing unpaid work. Using demographic data from seventy villages in Bangladesh, Hadi (2001) found that male migration had the effect of improving the decision-making authority of non-migrant wives and leading up to take up new roles within male domains. Similarly, in the rural Sunderbans of India, a qualitative study found that male migration expanded the agency of wives remaining behind in terms of their control over household finances, mobility, and role in household and community decision-making, especially among women living in nuclear families (Bose et al., 2017).

However, many studies have found a negative or ambiguous relationship between male migration and the emancipation of women remaining behind, especially in developing countries. A qualitative study conducted in Armenia and Guatemala found that while non-migrant women fulfil additional responsibilities in the wake of their husbands’ migration, both the nature and scope of these tasks serve to reinforce male dominance and female subordination within the household (Menjívar and Agadjanian, 2007, 1260–1261). In Mexico, a study of women observed an intensification of their domestic and market labour after their husbands’ migration to the US. Additionally, the study found that women’s market labour integrated them into transnational migration networks, which supported their husbands in leveraging economic opportunities as migrants abroad. However, the intensification of women’s labour brought on associated stresses of balancing family and work life, also called the ‘double-burden’. While women functioned as key enablers in the process of transnational migration, they were largely not involved in the migration decisions made by their husbands, reflecting limited decision-making power and an overarching economic dependence on men. Women also experienced limited mobility after their husbands’ migration, partly because their families’ dependence on transnational migration networks required them to behave in socially sanctioned ways (Kanaiaupuni, 2000). Moreover, a mixed-methods study conducted in rural Mexico found that women, who were previously restricted to domestic tasks in the private realm, began taking on formerly male responsibilities in public after their husband’s migration, such as shopping and buying household provisions, supervising part-time male agricultural labour on family farms and representing the family at monthly communal assembly meetings. However, their role in communal assembly meetings was limited to observation, their mobility was restricted due to community policing and their interactions outside the home and with ‘other’ men brought on a sense of discomfort among women – especially due to fear of being seen as transgressing their gendered ‘place’ within the community, which was associated with moral impropriety. The level of remittances also structured the experience of women remaining behind, with low or sporadic remittances being associated with feelings of abandonment, marriage dissolution and, eventually, a community-sanctioned search for a new partner – in part, as a strategy to ensure herself and her children can access resources for survival (McEvoy et al., 2012).

Evidence of a negative or ambiguous relationship between male migration and women’s autonomy is especially compelling in the Middle East and North Africa. In Morocco, Sadiqi and Ennaji (2004) found that male migration increased women’s independence in managing household finances, especially if they lived away from their in-laws, and making decisions about their children’s education. It also increased their likelihood of finding work and becoming involved in savings and investments decisions for the household. However, women whose husbands were unable to send a sufficient and steady stream of remittances were less likely to experience these positive effects. Additionally, their restricted access to external financing, family land and other productive assets exposed them to financial shocks. Another study in Morocco found that the increased tasks and responsibilities undertaken by women after male migration are perceived by women as a burden (Haas and van Rooij, 2010, 59–60). In urban Lebanon, Hjorth (2011) found that male migration did increase the likelihood of women’s labour force participation; however, this typically occurred when women’s work was necessary to fulfil basic household needs in addition to the husbands’ income. Respondents of the study reported an increase in responsibilities inside and outside the home; however, these were usually perceived as burdensome and often limited women’s ability to work outside the home. The increase in women’s responsibilities also did not typically translate into increased decision-making authority, with husbands being consulted in all major financial decisions and women being given autonomy over routine expense-related decisions only, a privilege they exercised even before their husband’s migration Finally, a study in Egypt conducted by Elbadawy and Roushdy (2010) found that male migration had a positive effect on women’s ability to make autonomous decisions about primarily household matters; however, this effect diminished once their husbands returned.

The South Asia region provides further evidence of the negative or ambiguous relationship between male migration and the autonomy of women remaining behind. A nationally representative survey in Nepal found male migration and the increase in household income due to remittances to reduces female labour force participation by 5.3%, especially among women aged 25–35 living in households with relatively large land-holdings (Lokshin and Glinskaya, 2009, 504). In India, Desai and Banerji (2008) found a more context-based relationship between male migration and autonomy of the women remaining behind, with respondents in their sample experiencing an increase in workload and autonomy only if they lived independently, i.e. away from in-laws. A multi-country study of women with migrant husbands from Yemen, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Egypt and Indonesia also found that women living with in-laws did not have many opportunities to exert control over household finances and decision-making, while women living independently experienced an increase in work activities outside the home, greater mobility and increased confidence in their own ability to manage household affairs. However, even women living independently were exposed to some kind of policing arrangement, with important aspects of their own and their family’s lives being dictated by husbands remotely (Ullah, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Lists of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Preface
• Introduction: migration statistics in South Asia – the need for a fresh approach
• 1 Gendered migration and its impacts on women’s agency and resilience in Pakistan
• 2 Productive vs. consumptive uses of remittances by households: evidence from Chitwan Valley of Nepal
• 3 The unequal landscape of remittances: the case of rural Bangladesh
• 4 Migration legislation and regulations in South Asia: an unfinished agenda?
• 5 Toward mapping employers and clients: the rise of recruitment fee advocacy and the need for market data in the Gulf construction sector
• 6 Migrant businesses in Saudi Arabia: towards an economic sociology of Gulf migration
• 7 From environmental disaster to migratory disaster: the Omani network of Bangladeshi fishermen
• 8 Diaspora volunteering: a tool for development or a channel for diasporic (re)engagement with countries of origin – a case study from Nepal
• 9 Restructuring of Nepal’s economy, agrarian change, and livelihood outcomes: the role of migration and remittances
• 10 Identifying reproductive health coverage gaps for rural- and urban-born migrant household heads in the slums in and around Dhaka city, Bangladesh
• Index