South Asian Women Migration and Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities
摘要
Migration of labour is a universally adopted phenomenon that offers mutual benefits to the dependent countries’ economies for which labour is the external source and also to the economies of the countries whose citizens are working overseas. Women migrants as domestic workers are also the major driver of global integration in this international migration. Presence of the women migrants as skilled or semi-skilled workers, students, or as a spouse is very prevalent in the international migration from South Asian region to the United States, Europe, and even to the different Gulf States of West Asian region which are known as the hub of female migrant population. According to the United Nations data, in 2020, women made up 135 million, i.e. 48.1% in the global migrant reserved population; this shows that gender plays a significant role in the international migration. Female population mainly from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal are the most migrated population in search of employment, financial security, and better livelihood because in these countries migration is viewed as the survival strategy that changes the socio-economic as well as the political situation of the country at the national and at the global level. This strategy not only benefits a nation but also leads to the individual empowerment of women as it gave them the equal opportunities to be self-dependent and contribute to families and communities as well. Majority of women in the host countries are employed in the low-income jobs of domestic sphere as three-quarters of Asian women migrants are concentrated in the household work which made them vulnerable and they often were the victims of physical and mental abuse with less pay. Women migrated to the economically developed countries due to the discrimination in the economic, political, and educational laws, policies and opportunities as compared to men, which forced them to take up any kind of job. This chapter aims to discuss the meaning of migration with the historical background of the trends of women migration from the South Asian countries. It also highlights the pattern, occupation, and population of Asian women migrants in the Gulf as well as in some western countries also. Lastly it further explained the issues, opportunities, and various policies adopted for women migrant workers in the origin as well as in the host countries.