Migration of Nepali Women for Domestic Work to the Gulf States

• In Event: Gender and Politics in the Global South 2

Abstract

In research on Asian migrant women in domestic work, the case of the Philippines is the most widely researched. It is rightfully so because the export of Filipina maids for remittance-led development in the Philippines is set apart by the sheer numbers of women who have migrated for domestic work overseas and continue to do so. However, there is a need to broaden our understanding of what has been dubbed “the maid trade” or “the global care chain” by studying other cases in the region. One such case is Nepal from which women have been migrating for domestic work, particularly to the Gulf States, since the 1990s. What makes Nepal especially useful to study is that as of 2017, the Government of Nepal imposed a total ban on the outmigration of maids, formally preventing any women from Nepal to migrate anywhere abroad for domestic work. Moreover, this is not the first time that a ban has been put in place. The government has periodically imposed several prohibitions on the migration of women for domestic work mainly to the Gulf states yet has never prohibited male-out migration for any occupations to the Gulf states. Through policy analysis, fieldwork observations, and interviews, I examine the reasons for and the impacts of this ban and earlier partial bans to determine if such “protective” measures, which do not extend to male migrant workers actually endanger women more and what alternatives there may be to such measures.

Author

• Sayam Moktan, University of Cincinnati