WUNRN
UNRISD - United Nations Research
Institute for Social Development
Direct Link to Full 38-Page UNRISD
Publication:
THE IMPLICATIONS OF MIGRATION FOR
GENDER & CARE REGIMES IN THE
SOUTH
Authors: Eleonore
Kofman, Parvati Raghuram
Programme Area: Social
Policy and Development
Paper No.: 41
Code: PP-SPD-41
Project Title: Social
Policy and Migration in Developing Countries
In the past decade there has been considerable interest in issues of funding
and provision of care in public and social policy. The almost universal
domination of women in caregiving, the growth in number of women in waged
labour and the resulting withdrawal of some women from caregiving has led to
opening up new fields of paid care work for other women. Women have migrated
across the world to take over these tasks, leaving care gaps in their own
households and thus fuelling further migration.
Yet, the analytical focus of much of
the literature on caring activities, concepts and models has largely been
limited to the global North with the result that knowledge of migration,
gendered labour and care regimes has significant gaps and omissions, especially
as they relate to the global South.
Migration is taking place not just
from the South to the North, but also between contiguous countries in the
South, where income levels between countries may not be much higher, and
especially to some of the migration poles in middle-income countries, such as
Argentina, Jordan, Malaysia and parts of Eastern Europe. Internal migration
within countries may also be a significant element of migratory flows.
Whatever the reasons and direction
of migration, the mobility of women has raised concerns about the resultant
rearrangements of care in sending contexts. This paper extends discussions of
migration and care to the global South and lays out some questions that need to
be addressed to help reflect local realities in discussions of care in the
South.
The
notion of care does not travel easily across contexts. In much of the
literature, there is a distinction between more formalized types of care, such
as health and social care, and the more informal versions of domestic care.
While the formalization of health care has a long history, social care is much
more restricted to particular welfare regimes and models of government. The
actual provision of these forms of care is also significantly influenced by
histories of care provision, household arrangements, familial entitlements, and
responsibilities and variations in community arrangements across the South.
Pinning down the actual practices of caregiving and care receiving as well as
the different institutional and spatial arrangements of state, public sector,
community and households, which influence care provision, is therefore
necessary for understanding the social implications of migration for gender and
care. These diverse arrangements, which have been theorized through the notion
of the care diamond, are multifaceted and dynamic, so that the nature of the
relationships between the four points of the care diamond vary regionally and
temporally. This paper explores these issues as they relate to the global
South.
The increasingly popular concept of the global chains of care is one way of
theorizing the links between the global South and the North simultaneously.
However, most of the work on this issue does not unravel the different chains
generated by migratory movements and their implications for gender and care regimes
in the South. This paper highlights the complexity of care chains and the need
to take into account familial structures, the diversity of sectors and skill
levels, including the migration of skilled workers who are often omitted from
these studies, the role of the state and immigration regulations, community
involvement and remittances. Furthermore, not only does care involve the
interplay of households, communities, markets and states but it also
encompasses different qualities and social relations in the giving and
receiving of care. These qualities are inherent to the ethics of care.
Drawing on the ethics of care literature this paper argues that the intrinsic
and emotional qualities of care too need recognition. They should not be seen
as inherently feminine qualities but should be extended to the social
organization of production and reproduction globally.
In sum, this paper examines the implications of migration for gender relations
and care provisioning in the countries of the global South, in particular
through the use of the notion of the care diamond and the interplay between its
spatial and institutional dimensions. It explores some of the ways in which the
care diamond needs specifying and moderating in relation to a Southern context.
The paper also assesses the applicability of key concepts such as the global
care chain and the ethics of care for migration in Southern countries. Finally,
it draws lessons for policy makers with regard to the care-related needs of
migrant families and households in different regions. Too often the importance
of migration as a buffer securing a cheap care workforce has meant states have
not recognized the economic and social importance of care; this paper argues
for the need to correct this imbalance.
================================================================
To contact the list administrator, or to leave the list, send an email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.