Gender Labour and Migration

Abstract

This thesis provides a comparative analysis of the labour market conditions of internal newlinewomen migrant workers and cross-border migrant women from Nepal and Bangladesh in newlinethe informal sector in India. It seeks to understand how different forms of vulnerabilities newlinein migration intersect with one another to define well-being of migrant women at the newlinedestination. It critically evaluates the migration experience of women in South Asia newlineagainst the backdrop of global, regional, and national level migration policies. The newlineresearch uses cross-sectional data from four Indian states and in-depth interviews with newlineselect female migrants and focused group discussions (FGD) with male migrants to newlineexamine how economic and non-economic segmentation occurs in the labour market. The newlinethesis comprises of seven chapters: two conceptual, four chapters that provide empirical newlineevidence, and one concluding commentary. newlineThe quantitative evidence shows that women typically get located in invisibilised jobs in newlinethe destinations like domestic work, agricultural work, or assisting as unpaid family newlinelabour. It is observed that cross-border migrant women tend to get located in paid work newlineopportunities that are of regular nature as compared to internal labour migrants who are newlineeither engaged in casual employment or as unpaid family labour. Although the labour newlinemarket insecurities seem to be limited for the cross-border migrants, they face significant newlinenon-economic vulnerabilities that are presented both quantitatively as well as newlinequalitatively. These vulnerabilities magnify in intersecting labour markets with common newlineethno-linguistic and religious characteristics which lead to confusing one group of newlinemigrants with another by hosts and employers at the destinations. The qualitative newlineevidence indicates that migration, which is believed to be a coping strategy for escaping newlinevulnerability, often embeds within itself susceptibility to multiple types of risks. As newlinewomen s mobility continues to hinge upon social and familial networks, migration newlinerecreates forms