Gendered Dynamics of International Labour Migration: Migrant Women Working in Pakistan

This study is part of a larger multi-country research project ‘Gendered Dynamics of Labour Migration’ involving three other countries and main cities, in addition to Islamabad in Pakistan, Istanbul in Turkey, Beirut in Lebanon,and Erbil in Kurdistan Iraq (KRI). The project set out to elaborate a gender-sensitive understanding of the interaction between economic and socio-cultural drivers of labour migrations, as well as women migrants’ living and working conditions in Islamabad and Pakistan more broadly. The investigation was guided by pre-defined themes, such as the drivers of migration; women’s living and working conditions and experiences; their agency and coping strategies; and spatial mobility and use of the city. In addition, as the research was conducted during the unprecedented time of the pandemic, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the employment and life of the women workers was also investigated. This report is theoretically grounded in critical migration and feminist theories. On the one hand, the political and economic factors of structural violence, and their role in women’s migration, are acknowledged, while micro-processes are highlighted, on the other hand, thus enabling us to see the nuances of experiences at the interplay between power and agency beyond stereotypical understandings of South-South women’s migration. The report is structured in four sections. Section 1 is an introduction. Section 2 reviews the scant literature on migrant women and the conditions and rights of women in the country. In Section3 on methodology, we describe study design, data collection and analysis, as well as recruitment, participants and research team, ethics, and the limitations of the study. Section 4 presents the results of the in-depth interviews. Results are presented of a highly diversified set of interviewees in terms of four sub-groups with different educational levels, occupations and nationalities. The first is constituted by the eight Filipino migrants who all started their migration journey as migrant domestic workers, with the exception of one professional who followed her Pakistani husband. Some also achieved social mobility. The second group is that of women who migrated from East and North of Africa. Three are highly educated Muslim women, working in the higher education sector, another is a professional working in the humanitarian sector, and the fifth a Tanzanian migrant domestic worker. A third is that of migrant women, active in higher education and cultural conservation, originating from Global North countries, such as Germany, Canada, and the USA as well as Hong Kong. The last sub-group is that of five migrant women from Central/WestAsia, where four are from Afghanistan, and one from Tajikistan. These are mostly refugees, who escaped the conflict, and genderand religious discrimination. We also interviewed three NGOs officers, who mainly work with the Afghan community. The concluding Section 5 discusses the results, identifies the strengths and limits of the study, and formulates recommendations for policies, practices, and further research avenues.
Lazzarino, Kofman, Kapadia (2024) Gendered Dynamics of International Labour Migration: Migrant Women Working in Pakistan; Gender, Justice, and Security Hub, Migration & Displacement Stream