Migrating against all the odds: International labour migration of Bangladeshi women

Abstract

Of all temporary unskilled migrant workers who originated from Bangladesh in 2010, women accounted for less than 3%. This extremely low proportion of women results from the numerous sociocultural, religious and political barriers women labour migrants encounter. Based on 23 in-depth interviews collected in 2009 in Bangladesh with former migrant domestic workers who worked in the Gulf region, the article argues that women actively negotiate these barriers prior to going abroad and upon return. Using a micro-sociological perspective of gender and family relations, the article shows that, depending on women’s family situation and relationships, they were more or less at risk of suffering stigma in the pre-departure and return stages of temporary labour migration. The article builds on a solid body of research that examines how international labour migration challenges the global and local patriarchal gender order. The findings show how international migration of women may unsettle the patriarchal gender order, but can also serve to further subordinate women after they return home.