Sustainable Development Policy Institute

Gender and Globalization

Project: From Vulnerability to Resilience with National Centre of Competence in Research North-South (NCCR) Transversal Package (TP) 2

Activity: Migration- Reducing or Inducing Risk?

• Background
• Research Findings

Background

The process of migration affects a large number of individuals, households, and communities worldwide – including Pakistan. An estimated four million Pakistanis move abroad in search of livelihoods. Before the onset of the oil boom in the Middle East, Pakistan's migrant workers left for the UK and other Western countries. Since the 1970s, Gulf countries have opened job opportunities and absorbed millions of Pakistani workers. These migrant streams are associated with significant financial flows. During last fiscal year alone, migrants’ remittances exceeded Rs. 240 billion.

Focusing on migrants’ contributions to household incomes and the national exchequer, migration is seen as a strategy to improve people and nations’ socio-economic conditions. However, the search for greener pastures abroad has a price as well.  Migration brings about significant changes in the lives of those left behind. Especially, changes in the gender division of tasks between women and men may increase women’s workload. Dangerous communicable diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, have been another risk associated with migration.

In a research project on The Role of Transnational Migration for Women and Men in North-West Pakistan, the SDPI takes a closer look at the opportunities and risks provided by migration from rural NWFP to the Gulf States. In order to contribute to better policy-making and greater benefits from migration as well as for migrants, SDPI involves relevant stakeholders and makes its research findings accessible to them. For this purpose, a public seminar on Migration: Reducing or Inducing Risk? was conducted on September 10, 2007.

Research findings have been disseminated during the following means:

• SDPI Research and News Bulletin (January-March 2007) Article on "Migration – Addressing or Importing Risk?"
• SDPI public seminar "Migration: Reducing or Inducing Risk"
  • Migrating from, remitting to rural NWFP: Preliminary findings from an SDPI study
  • Migration: Reducing or Inducing Risk by Mr. Arbab Muhammad Azhar Director General Bureau of Emigration & Overseas Employment
  • Migration: A Policy Option in the Context of Labour Market Changes byZafar Mueen NasirDirector PoliciesPolicy Planning CellLabour and Manpower DivisionIslamabad
• Institute of Social Studies Conference Presentation "Coping on Women’s Back. Social capital-vulnerability links through a gender lens" 1.01 mb
• Tenth Sustainable Development Conference Panel "Reducing or Inducing Risk: Gender and Migration in South Asia"
  • Strengthening Whom? The Role of Transnational Migration for Women and Men in North-West Pakistan by Karin Astrid Siegmann, sdpi
  • Weakest Link in the Textile Chain: Pakistan‘s Cotton Pickers' Bitter Harvest by karin Astrid Siegmann and Nazima Shaheen, SDPIi
• International Migration Day 2007 Event "Making Their Voices Audible"

Please contact Dr. Karin Astrid Siegmann for more details regarding SDPI’s program on gender and globalisation.