Women in foreign employment: Its impact on the left behind family members in Tanahun district, Nepal

Abstract

Though, the migration process and its impact in the household economy has been extensively studied in the academic sectors, but much less attention has been given to the impact of female labor migration on the family members who are left behind at home. This paper attempts to determine socio-economic structure of female labor migrants from Tanahun District of Gandaki Province, Nepal. Similarly, it also attempts to analyze the causes of female migration, process and dynamics of foreign labor migration and its impact on the left behind family specially children and elder citizens at home. For this purpose, 180 households have been purposefully selected from three municipalities and conducted household survey through snowball methods. According to the survey findings, married women are preferred to go for abroad, whereas the age of migration is after 30 years. Literate are very less migrated for foreign labor. Majority of the female migrants preferred to go to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)countries and then other countries, i.e. Malaysia, Lebanon, etc. There are both positive and negative impacts clearly observed. The positive impacts of remittance to support for the poverty alleviation at household level, enhance educational and health facilities as well as improve housing conditions. But, the negative impacts, especially on children are appeared, i.e. care deficit, aggressive behavior, physical abuse, deteriorating health condition and school dropout. To, eliminate or reduce negative impact, government should take initiation and formulate effective policies that can maximize positive effects.

Women labour migrant returnees and their changing roles in Nepal

“…However, this result different from national reports (MOLESS, 2020) which mentioned Kuwait is one of the major destination but not the top country for migration. However, a study in Tanahun Nepal reported Kuwait was among the top three countries preferred by women migration without significant difference among the top three destination countries (Sapkota, 2020). This may be due to an understanding of little or limited awareness and education regarding foreign labour migration.…”

“…Similarly, Sijapati et al (2019) studied on the policy and regulatory frameworks of Nepal related to female labour migration indicated working conditions abroad are not affected by sending country policies. A recent study by Sapkota (2020) on International female labour migration and its impact on the left behind family members in their home in the Tanhun district of Nepal and considered more work required in this aspect. Against this backdrop, this article attempts to analyse changes in gender roles and impact on women family members as well as the attitudes towards women migration.…”

The Effect of Migration on Family in Nepal: A Review on the Family Structure, Livelihood, Education, Aging Parents, Reproductive Health and Marital Relationship

“…Many migrating persons to cities and abroad leave their wives, children, and elderly parents. The movement of the people from rural to urban areas represents a significant livelihood strategy for the poor to maximize family income and minimize the environmental risk (Adger et al, 2015;IOM & Save the Children, 2017;Sapkota, 2020;Singh, 2019). Similarly, Sapkota (2018) claims that 62 percent of rural households migrate for work to earn more and have better livelihoods and the other 20 percent migrate because they are only employed seasonally at their native place and the rest want to save money for the social and cultural obligation.…”

“…There is very little literature available on the impact of female migration to the left behind families, especially concerning the children. The recent study by Sapkota (2020) reveals that left-behind children face numerous adverse effects of female migration including problems related to the caring deficit, psychological problem, health, education, aggressive behavior, physical abuse and anti-social activities due to the lack of motivation from others at home but the positive side is the alleviation of poverty, improvement of education quality improvement, improve lifestyle, and health care services. Despite the high level of parental international labor migration from Nepal, Kunwar et al (2020) find that children of migrants had a similar level of health care seeking and nutritional status to children of non-migrants because of the improved household economic condition by remittance and less migration number of mothers.…”

Effect of Parental Seasonal Labor Migration on Children’s Care and Educational Performance in Rural Nepal

“…According to Islam et al (2019), remittances from parental migration give families more purchasing power for food and health care, which may aid in child nutritional development but harm psychological development because parents do not provide direct care to their children. Furthermore, Sapkota (2020) adds that left-behind children from migrant families face a variety of negative consequences, including issues related to the caring deficit, psychological problems, health, education, violent behavior, physical abuse, and anti-social activities due to a lack of encouragement from others at home, but the positive aspects include poverty alleviation, education quality improvement, better lifestyle, and access to health care services.…”