Escape route to dependency? Female migration from Sri Lanka to the Middle East

This article looks at labor migration with the sex component turned upside down, where the woman leaves hearth and home in search of work in distant lands. The sending country is Sri Lanka, and the women migrate as maids to Arab households in the Gulf area. Labor migration must be understood in the context of the economic and social development that has made migration possible, or rather pushed it forward. Today, the export of labor is the 2nd biggest source of foreign earnings for Sri Lanka, and females constitute the largest single group of labor migrants. There is 1 clear aspect of female migration: it is almost without exception the poorest strata of society that send their women to the Gulf as housemaids. 3 factors tend to reduce the value of wages earned in the Middle East: 1) for a majority of the migrants there are high social costs involved, 2) there are high transaction costs just to obtain a Gulf job, and 3) performing paid housework tends to be regarded as a low-status occupation and is less attractive to households that have alternative means of income. Not only are the migrant women themselves exposed to a very different society, with different values and ways of living, but also the whole community at home gets a concept of "abroad." The Sri Lankan government expects the contingent of female migrants to grow, though against this is the fact that Sri Lanka now faces stronger competition in female labor exports from other Asian countries.     

Middle East migration and health

"Labour migration to the Middle East from Sri Lanka has been increasing in recent times. Such a situation has not only demographic, but economic and social implications.... [The author investigates the] impact on the health situation of the migrant workers as well as on the families that they have left behind...by reviewing [the literature] and by making use of the author's own personal experiences as a physician in the Middle East."     

Exploring Child Mortality Risks Associated with Diverse Patterns of Maternal Migration in Haiti

Internal migration is a salient dimension of adulthood in Haiti, particularly among women. Despite the high prevalence of migration in Haiti, it remains unknown whether Haitian women’s diverse patterns of migration influence their children’s health and survival. In this paper, we introduce the concept of lateral (i.e., rural-to-rural, urban-to-urban) versus nonlateral (i.e., rural-to-urban, urban-to-rural) migration to describe how some patterns of mothers’ internal migration may be associated with particularly high mortality among children. We use the 2006 Haitian Demographic and Health Survey to estimate a series of discrete-time hazard models among 7,409 rural children and 3,864 urban children. We find that compared with their peers with nonmigrant mothers, children born to lateral migrants generally experience lower mortality, whereas those born to nonlateral migrants generally experience higher mortality. Although there are important distinctions across Haiti’s rural and urban contexts, these associations remain net of socioeconomic factors, suggesting they are not entirely attributable to migrant selection. Considering the timing of maternal migration uncovers even more variation in the child health implications of maternal migration; however, the results counter the standard disruption and adaptation perspective. Although future work is needed to identify the processes underlying the differential risk of child mortality across lateral versus nonlateral migrants, the study demonstrates that looking beyond rural-to-urban migration and considering the timing of maternal migration can provide a fuller, more complex understanding of migration’s association with child health.     

Children of Migrants: The Cumulative Impact of Parental Migration on Children’s Education and Health Outcomes in China

Since the end of 1990s, approximately 160 million Chinese rural workers migrated to cities for work. Because of restrictions on migrant access to local health and education systems, many rural children are left behind in home villages to grow up without parental care. This article examines how exposure to cumulative parental migration affects children’s health and education outcomes. Using the Rural-Urban Migration Survey in China (RUMiC) data, we measure the share of children’s lifetime during which parents were away from home. We instrument this measure of parental absence with weather changes in their home villages when parents were aged 16–25, when they were most likely to initiate migration. Results show a sizable adverse effect of exposure to parental migration on the health and education outcomes of children: in particular, boys. We also find that the use of the contemporaneous measure for parental migration in previous studies is likely to underestimate the effect of exposure to parental migration on children’s outcomes.     

Engendering migrant networks: The case of Mexican migration

This article compares the impact of family migrant and destination-specific networks on international and internal migration. We find that migrant networks are more important for international moves than for internal moves and that female networks are more important than male networks for moves within Mexico. For moves to the United States, male migrant networks are more important for prospective male migrants than for female migrants, and female migrant networks lower the odds of male migration, but significantly increase female migration. We suggest that distinguishing the gender composition and destination content of migrant networks deepens our understanding of how cumulative causation affects patterns of Mexican migration.     

Controlling population growth in Sri Lanka: perceptions,policies and strategies

Sri Lanka has been an oft-cited example in the demographic literature of developing countries over the past 4 decades. Despite its low level of per capita income, Sri Lanka has managed to achieve the lowest level of fertility in South Asia. Sri Lanka's population policies, especially with regard to fertility, have been rated as strong by some writers. The evolution of policies on population growth in Sri Lanka is described in the following sections: the problem of population growth, strategies for controlling population growth, the period of indirect government participation from 1948 to 1965, policy change during 1965-77, 1977 as the beginning of a new era of increasing government commitment to domestic population polices, and strategy changes from 1989 onwards. During this current, most recent, phase of population policy in Sri Lanka, the government has focused upon satisfying the demand for various family planning methods, demand which has been created by a well-promoted fertility control program during the preceding phases of policy implementation. Greater emphasis is simultaneously being given to improving reproductive health.     

Gender mobility: survival plays and performing Central American migration in passage

Bandits, corrupt officials, travel companions and smugglers rape Central American migrants during their clandestine journey across Mexico. However, migrants do not passively accept this violence; they devise performances of gender to arrive at their destination. Based on over two years of ethnographic fieldwork from El Salvador through Mexico to the United States, this article examines how men and women improvise new understandings of masculinity and femininity as they travel the migrant trail. In the transient social field of the transnational migration route, migrant narratives of the journey are ‘survival plays’ that re-imagine gender.     

我国移民子女家庭的最新发展

本文使用原国家人口和计划生育委员会2010年“流动人口动态监测”调查原始数据,对不同类型移民子女的家庭发展环境和状况进行考察.具体分析了我国移民子女全部随迁、全部留守和部分随迁家庭的规模、结构及迁移特点,各类家庭的收入与消费特征,从安居乐业的角度研究移民子女家庭的稳定性.最后针对移民子女家庭的主要发展问题与发展需求,文章提出了相应的对策建议.     

International migration: a global challenge

Trends in international migration are presented in this multiregional analysis. Seven of the world's wealthiest countries have about 33% of the world's migrant population, but under 16% of the total world population. Population growth in these countries is substantially affected by the migrant population. The migration challenge is external and internal. The external challenge is to balance the need for foreign labor and the commitment to human rights for those migrants seeking economic opportunity and political freedom. The internal challenge is to assure the social adjustment of immigrants and their children and to integrate them into society as citizens and future leaders. Why people cross national borders and how migration flows are likely to evolve over the next decades are explained. This report also presents some ways that countries can manage migration or reduce the pressures which force people to migrate. It is recommended that receiving nations control immigration by accelerating global economic growth and reducing wars and human rights violations. This report examines the impact of immigration on international trade, aid, and direct intervention policies. Although migration is one of the most important international economic issues, it is not coordinated by an international group. The European experience indicates that it is not easy to secure international cooperation on issues that affect national sovereignty. It is suggested that countries desiring control of their borders should remember that most people never cross national borders to live or work in another country, that 50% of the world's migrants move among developing countries, and that countries can shift from being emigration to immigration countries. The author suggests that sustained reductions in migration pressure are a better alternative than the "quick fixes" that may invite the very much feared mass and unpredictable movements.     

Rural-to-Urban migration and child survival in Senegal

Analysis of the 1986 Senegal Demographic and Health Survey reveals that mothers may be able to improve their children's survival chances by migrating from the countryside to the city. Children of urban migrants, however, continue to experience a much higher risk of mortality before the age of 5 than children of urban nonmigrants, even after the mother has lived in the city for several years. This migrant mortality disadvantage persists when controlling for numerous socioeconomic and fertility-related factors typically associated with child mortality in developing countries, which also serve as indicators of migrant selection and adaptation.     

人口流动家庭化及其影响因素——以北京市为例

文章基于2006年北京市1‰流动人口抽样调查,考察北京市流动人口的家庭模式及其流动家庭化的影响因素。调查结果显示,北京市流动人口的家庭化率已达到60%。流动人口家庭模式是以一对夫妻户和一对夫妻加孩子户为主的核心家庭为主导,以一代户和二代户为主。3/4的已婚流动人口携带了配偶,有孩子的流动人口中有一半携带了孩子,这些孩子中有近20%是在北京出生的。流动人口的平均家庭规模为2人,明显小于全国农村的平均家庭规模(3.4人)。流动人口的个人特征及在京居住地显著影响人口流动家庭化,同时还发现非经济因素成为比经济因素更为重要的人口流动家庭化影响因素。     

子女随迁是否有助于改善进城农民工的营养摄入?

从"只身外出"到"举家迁徙"的农民工流动趋势转变,子女是否随迁逐渐成为进城农民工家庭面临的重要选择.本文利用"城镇外来务工人员就业和食品需求"调查数据,考察了子女随迁对进城农民工营养摄入量的影响.结果表明:在控制了收入和劳动强度等因素后,与子女未随迁的农民工相比,有子女随迁农民工的热量摄入量显著增加了4.9％,从营养摄...     

An international labour migration to developing countries in Asia: a case study of Korea

This study is based on a random sample of 431 temporary migrant workers from developing countries in Korea. Interviews were conducted from mid-October 1995 to mid-March 1996 with 105 Pakistanis, 77 Filipinos, 71 Sri Lankans, 67 Bangladeshi, 40 Indonesians, 26 individuals from Myanmar, 22 Chinese, 16 Nepalese, 2 Iranians, 2 Kazakstanians, 1 Malaysian, 1 Vietnamese, and 1 Ghanaian. Migration follows legal and illegal patterns. Legal trainee migrants leave before their contract time due to low pay, inadequate living conditions, forced overtime work, and lack of freedom. Trainees tend to be ethnic Koreans born in China and Chinese nationals. The number of illegal migrants is increasing. Foreign workers gain entry illegally through smuggling networks and legally through industrial work or tourist visas. Sample data reveal that the average age ranged from 26 to 32 years. Almost 70% were unmarried, and most were males. Filipinos tended to be older and show gender and marital balance. Age, marital status, religion, and education varied widely by ethnic group. Indonesians and Sri Lankans had lower household income than Pakistanis and Filipinos. Pakistanis tended to come from larger families. Total travel costs ranged from $3000 to $5000. Korea is one of four rapidly developing countries that shifted from being a major exporter of labor to a major importer of workers. Shortages of workers accompanied the shift. This case study illustrates that the traditional structural paradigm does not explain some unique features of international labor migration (ILM) in Asia, including the encouragement of illegal migration. The clandestine networks are different from those in developed countries. State policies mediate the flow of ILM.     

ESCAP migration study gathers momentum

A comparative study is being conducted in the ESCAP (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) region on the relationships of migration and urbanization to development. The 1st stage of the study will entail the preparation of country reports on the census analysis of migration, urbanization and development. The 2nd stage will involve preparation of a series of national migration surveys. The 3rd phase will involve assisting member governments to formulate a comprehensive population redistribution policy as part of their national development planning. 1st-phase country reports have been completed in Sri Lanka, South Korea, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Migration in Sri Lanka has largely been rural-to-rural with little urbanization so far. The picture in South Korea has been the opposite, with rapid urbanization in the 1960s and 1970s; the government is hoping to divert some population to smaller cities away from Seoul. The pattern in the Philippines is 1 of urban primacy with the metropolis of Manila accounting for over 1/3 of the country's total population. Indonesia is characterized by a dense heartland in the Java-Bali regions. However, the rate of urbanization here has been slower. Migrants in all the countries studied are preponderantly young. The sex differential varies from country to country. The influence of migration on subsequent fertility is unknown.     

Land and leña: linking transnational migration, natural resources, and the environment in Guatemala

This article examines the relationships between international migration, natural resources, and the environment. Rather than looking at environmental change as a cause of population movements, the article reveals how migration affects the environment in sending countries. Empirically, we rely on a case study in Guatemala. Although migrants and cash remittances make significant contributions to Guatemala’s changing economy, little is known about the relationships between migration and the environment in this Central American country—a country, which continues to have a large rural population and that relies heavily on its natural resources. Drawing on ethnographic research and household surveys in a Maya community, we reveal how migrants and their earnings, as well as their ideas, behavior and attitudes, affect land use, land cover, and firewood use. We reveal, for example, how in addition to investments in land for home building and pick-up trucks to help improve agricultural production, some migrant households purchase more land and often dedicate it to the cultivation of vegetable crops for local and foreign markets. Cultural practices and beliefs directly linked to land and the environment, particularly maize cultivation, also alter due to migration processes. And, despite the ability of migrant households to transition to more efficient fuels like liquid propane gas (LPG), we show how they continue to use firewood. In all, the study contributes important insights into the environmental implications of migration.     

The differential migration of population in China: the analysis on sample survey data on urban population migration in 74 towns]

The paper analyzed data from a migration survey in 74 Chinese cities and towns in 1986. Several characteristics of the migrant population were found from the data analysis. The biggest proportion of migrants was in 20-24 age group. This age group sent 26.1% of the migrants to metro-cities, 27.6% to large cities, 25.1% to median sized cities, 22.4% to small cities, and 22.2% to towns. Migrants in the 15-29 age groups accounted for 50% of the migrants to different-sized cities and towns. Female migration is 4.2-15.4% lower than male. The proportion migrating because of marriage ranged between 84/7-92.5% to different-sized cities for females, which is much higher than for males. The level of education in the migrant population is higher than in the general population, as educational qualifications are important for job opportunities. Those with middle school and above education, make up the bulk of the migrants, and 30-40% of the migrant population to big cities increased their educational level after migrating. The currently and never married comprise, the majority of the migrant population, while the number of widowed and divorced is minimal (2 and 0.4%, respectively). Most of the widowed were 60 years old and migrated for subsistence to cities where their children lived. Among the unmarried migrants, female make up 1/3. Whereas among the married, there are more females than males.     

Migration and fertility in the Philippines: Hendershot's selectivity model revisited

A demographer compared 1983 data on 5092 currently married migrant and nonmigrant women living in the Philippines to determine whether migration was still selective in terms of fertility behavior or not. Fertility was basically the same between migrant and nonmigrant women in their early reproductive years, but clear differences existed between older migrants and nonmigrants as indicated by children ever born (CEB). In fact, migration did not significantly affect cumulative fertility at all (correlation ratio=.03). Moreover its effect was further reduced when the researchers controlled for age and duration of marriage. Besides level of education and contraceptive use status contributed more to explanations of fertility differentials (correlation ratio=.09 for both) than did migration. The mean number of CEB adjusted for all variables fell with level of education from 4.18 for those with primary education to 3.63 to those with college education. This result identified education as a means to reduce high fertility in the Philippines. On the other hand, the mean was higher among women who ever used contraception than it was for those who never used it (4.21 vs. 3.72). Apparently considerable family size motivated mothers to use contraception. Since women who migrated to cities tended to be in the beginning of their reproductive period, considerable natural increase could occur in urban areas. Therefore the Philippines needed to devise a strategy for reducing fertility among migrant women as well as strategies for other groups such as professional/career oriented women and women who remained at home to tend to children and/or the home.     

务工型老年流动人口的特征解析 ——基于定居意愿的比较

务工型老年流动人口是一个兼具独特性与复杂性的流动人口群体.虽然务工型老年流动人口的诸多特征看似介于非务工型老年流动人口与务工型中年流动人口之间,但是,本文利用2017年全国流动人口动态监测数据,通过健康状态与在业状况对定居意愿影响模式的分析与比较发现,生命周期及代际支持理论对务工型老年流动人口定居意愿的适用性远高于市场...     

Tracking rural-to-urban migration in China: Lessons from the 2005 inter-census population survey

We examined migration in China using the 2005 inter-census population survey, in which migrants were registered at both their place of original (hukou) residence and at their destination. We find evidence that the estimated number of internal migrants in China is extremely sensitive to the enumeration method. We estimate that the traditional destination-based survey method fails to account for more than a third of migrants found using comparable origin-based methods. The ‘missing’ migrants are disproportionately young, male, and holders of rural hukou. We find that origin-based methods are more effective at capturing migrants who travel short distances for short periods, whereas destination-based methods are more effective when entire households have migrated and no remaining family members are located at the hukou location. We conclude with a set of policy recommendations for the design of population surveys in countries with large migrant populations.     

Birth and death in cities in the developing world

City dwellers in Sub-Saharan Africa have increased roughly 600% in the last 35 years. Throughout the developing world, cities have expanded at a rate that has far outpaced rural population growth. Extensive data document lower fertility and mortality rates in cities than in rural regions. But slums, shantytowns, and squatters' settlements proliferate in many large cities. Martin Brockerhoff studies the reproductive and health consequences of urban growth, with an emphasis on maternal and child health. Brockerhoff reports that child mortality rates in large cities are highest among children born to mothers who recently migrated from rural areas or who live in low-quality housing. Children born in large cities have about a 30% higher risk of dying before they reach the age of 5 than those born in smaller cities. Despite this, children born to migrant mothers who have lived in a city for about a year have much better survival chances than children born in rural areas to nonmigrant mothers and children born to migrant mothers before or shortly after migration. Migration in developing countries as a whole has saved millions of children's lives. The apparent benefits experienced in the 1980s may not occur in the future, as cities continue to grow and municipal governments confront an overwhelming need for housing, jobs, and services. Another benefit is that fertility rates in African cities fell by about 1 birth per woman as a result of female migration from villages to towns in the 1980s and early 1990s. There will be an increasing need for donors and governments to concentrate family planning, reproductive health, child survival, and social services in cities, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, because there child mortality decline has been unexpectedly slow, overall fertility decline is not yet apparent in most countries, and levels of migration to cities are anticipated to remain high.