International Journal of Social Science & Economic Research
Submit Paper

Title:
DREAMS OF GOOD LIVES OR SHATTERED HOPES?: LABOUR MIGRATION AND WOMEN'S WORK IN RURAL BANGLADESH

Authors:
Dr. Ishrat Jahan

|| ||

Dr. Ishrat Jahan
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh

MLA 8
Jahan, Dr. Ishrat. "DREAMS OF GOOD LIVES OR SHATTERED HOPES?: LABOUR MIGRATION AND WOMEN'S WORK IN RURAL BANGLADESH." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 3, no. 6, June 2018, pp. 2228-2254, ijsser.org/more2018.php?id=152. Accessed 2018.
APA
Jahan, D. (2018, June). DREAMS OF GOOD LIVES OR SHATTERED HOPES?: LABOUR MIGRATION AND WOMEN'S WORK IN RURAL BANGLADESH. Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, 3(6), 2228-2254. Retrieved from ijsser.org/more2018.php?id=152
Chicago
Jahan, Dr. Ishrat. "DREAMS OF GOOD LIVES OR SHATTERED HOPES?: LABOUR MIGRATION AND WOMEN'S WORK IN RURAL BANGLADESH." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research 3, no. 6 (June 2018), 2228-2254. Accessed , 2018. ijsser.org/more2018.php?id=152.

References
[1]. Adhikari, J. (2006) Poverty, Globalisation and Gendered LabourMigration in Nepal in Arya, S. and Roy, A. (ed.) Poverty, Gender and Migration, Women and Migration in Asia, Volume 2, pp.87-106, SAGE Publications, New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London
[2]. Afsar, R. (1998) Rural- Urban Migration and Development: Evidence from Bangladesh in Bilsborrow, E. Richard (ed.) Migration, Urbanization, and Development: New Directions and Issues, Proceedings of the Symposium on Internal Migration and Urbanization in Developing Countries, 22-24 January 1996, New York, United Nations Population Fund and Kluwer Academic Publishers
[3]. Afsar, R. (2001) Sociological Implications of Female Labour Migration in Bangladesh, in Sobhan, R.& Khundker, N. (ed.) Globalisation And Gender: Changing Patterns of Women's Employment in Bangladesh, Centre for Policy Dialogue, University Press Limited, Dhaka, pp.91-165
[4]. Afsar, R. (2002) Migration and rural livelihoods in Hands Not Land: How Livelihoods are Changing in Rural Bangladesh by Toufique, A.K. and Turton, C., Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and the Department of International Development (DFID), UK
[5]. Afsar, R. (2009) Unraveling the Vicious Cycle of Recruitment: Labour Migration from Bangladesh to the Gulf States, International Labour Office, Geneva, Working paper no.63
[6]. Alam, K., Blanch, L. and Smith, A. (2011) Stitched up-Women Workers in the Bangladeshi Garment Sector, Report, War on Want, UK
[7]. Amin, S., Diamond, I., Naved, R.I. and Newby, M. (1998) Transition to adulthood of female garment factory workers in Bangladesh. Studies in Family Planning, vol.29, no.2, pp.185-200
[8]. Bacchus, N. (2005) The effects of Globalization on women in developing nations. Forzheimer Honors College, Honors College Thesis, Pace University
[9]. Belanger, D. and Rahman, M. (2013) Migrating against all odds: International Labour Migration of Bangladeshi Women, Current Sociology, vol.61, no.3, pp. 356- 373, Sage Publications
[10]. Blanchet, T. (2010) Migration to the bars of Bombay: Women, village religion and sustainability, Women's Studies International Forum, vol.33, pp.345-353
[11]. Blanchet, T., Biswas, H., Zaman, A., Dabu M.H. and Lucky, M.A. (2002) Beyond Boundaries: A Critical Look at Women Labour Migration and the Trafficking Within, Drishti Research Centre, Dhaka, 202 pp.
[12]. Chant, S. and Radcliffe, A.S. (1992) Migration and development: the importance of gender in Chant, S. (eds.) Gender Migration in Developing Countries, Belhaven Press, London and New York. pp.1-29
[13]. Dannecker, P. (2007) The Re-Ordering of Political, Cultural and Social Spaces Through Transnational Labour Migration, Bielefeld: COMCAD. Working Papers - Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development, No.17, 20pp.
[14]. Gardner, K. and Osella, F. (2003) Migration, modernity and social transformation in South Asia: An Overview, Introduction, Contributions to Indian sociology, no.37, 1&2, SAGE Publications, New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London, pp.v-xxviii
[15]. Gidwani, V. and Sivaramakrishnan, K. (2003) Circular Migration and rural cosmopolitanism in India, Contributions to Indian Sociology no.37, 1&2, SAGE Publications, New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London. pp. 339-367
[16]. Heyzer, N. and Wee, V. (1994) Domestic Workers in Transient Overseas Employment: Who Benefits, Who Profits, in Heyzer, N., Nijheholt, G.L. and Weerakoon, N.(ed.) The Trade in Domestic Workers : Causes, Mechanisms and Consequences of International Migration, Volume One, Selected Papers from a Regional Policy Dialogue on '' Foreign Women Domestic Workers: International Migration, Employment and National Policies'', Colombo, Srilanka, 10-14 August, 1992, pp.31-101, Asian and Pacific Development Centre, Kuala Lumpur and Zed Books Ltd, London and New Jersey
[17]. Huda, S. (2006) Dowry in Bangladesh: Compromising Women's Rights, South Asia Research, vol.23, issue 3, SAGE Publication, New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London, pp. 249-268
[18]. Jahan, M. (2014) Globalization and Women in Bangladesh: A Review of Socio- Economic and Cultural Impacts, Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, vol.5, no.3, pp.34-38
[19]. Jaiswal A (2014) An Anthropological Vision on the Impact of Globalization on Indian Rural Women: A Critical Reality. Arts Social Science Journal. Vol. 5, Issue 2, pp. 1-9
[20]. Kabeer, N. (1991) Gender dimensions of rural poverty: Analysis from Bangladesh, The Journal of Peasant Studies, vol.18, no.2,pp.241-262
[21]. Kabeer, N. (1995) Necessary, Sufficient or Irrelevant? Women, Wages and Intra-household Power Relations in Urban Bangladesh, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex Working Paper No.25
[22]. Kabeer, N. (2000) The Power to choose : Bangladeshi Women and Labour Market Decisions in London and Dhaka, Verso, London, New York
[23]. Kabeer, N. (2004) Globalization, labor standards and women's rights: dilemmas of collective (in) action in an interdependent world, Feminist Economics, vol.1, issue 1
[24]. Kabeer, N. and Mahmud, S. (2004) Globalization, gender and poverty: Bangladeshi women workers in export and local markets, Journal of International Development, no.16, pp.93-109
[25]. Khosla, N. (2009) The Ready-Made Garments Industry in Bangladesh: A Means to Reducing Gender Based Social Exclusion of Women? Journal of International Women's Studies, vol.11, Issue 1, Gender and Islam in Asia, Article 18, pp.289-303
[26]. Kibria, N. (1995) Culture, Social Class and Income Control in the Lives of Women Garment Workers in Bangladesh, Gender and Society, vol.9, no.3, pp.289-309
[27]. Kibria, N. (2001) Becoming a Garments Worker: The Mobilisation of Women into the Garment Factories of Bangladesh in Sobhan, R.& Khundker, N. (ed.) Globalisation And Gender: Changing Patterns of Women's Employment in Bangladesh, Centre for Policy Dialogue, University Press Limited, Dhaka.pp. 64-90
[28]. Longino, E.H. (1993) Feminist Standpoint Theory and the Problems of Knowledge, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol.19, no.1,pp. 201-212
[29]. Lutz, H. (2011) The New Maids - transnational women and the care economy, translated from German to English by Deborah Shannon, Zed Books, London, New York
[30]. Magdoff, F. and Magdoff, H. (2004) Disposable workers: Today's Reserve Army of Labor, Monthly Review- An Independent Socialist Magazine, vol.55, issue 11 (April)
[31]. Mosse, D. (2005) Cultivating Development: An Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice, Pluto Press
[32]. Mujahid, N., Shahbaz, S.M. and Shahbaz, M. (2014) Labour Market Conditions- Female Labour Supply Nexus: The Role of Globalization in Pakistan, MPRA Paper, No. 57179, pp. 1-29
[33]. Osella, C. and Osella, F. (2006) Once Upon a Time in the West? Stories of Migration and Modernity from Kerala, South India, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol.12, no.3, pp.569-588
[34]. Parnwell, M. (1993) Population Movements and the Third World, Routledge, London and New York
[35]. Paul-Majumder, P. & Begum, A. (2000) The Gender Imbalances in the Export-Oriented Garment Industries in Bangladesh, The World Bank, Development- Research Group, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network; A Background Paper presented for the World Bank, Policy Research Report (PRR) on gender and development
[36]. Pryer, J. (1992) Purdah, patriarchy and population movement: perspectives from Bangladesh in Chant, S. (ed.) Gender Migration in Developing Countries, Belhaven Press, London and New York. pp. 139-153
[37]. Rozario, S. (2001) Purity and Communal Boundaries: Women and Social Change in a Bangladeshi Village, 2nd edn. with new introduction. University Press Limited, Dhaka.
[38]. Rozario, S. and Gow, J. (2003) Bangladesh: Return migration and Social Transformation in Iredale, R., Guo,F. and Rozario, S.(ed.) Return Migration in the Asia Pacific, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA
[39]. Shiva, V. (1989) Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development, Zed Books Ltd. UK & USA
[40]. Siddiqi, D. (2003) The Sexual Harassment of Industrial Workers: Strategies for Intervention in the workplace and Beyond, CPD-UNFPA Publication Series, Paper 26, pp.1-66
[41]. Siddiqui, T. (2001) Transcending Boundaries: Labour Migration of Women from Bangladesh, Dhaka: University Press Limited
[42]. Siddiqui, T. (2003) Migration as a livelihood strategy of the poor: the Bangladesh Case, Migration, Development & Pro-poor policy choices in Asia, Paper presented at the Regional Conference on Migration, Development and Pro-poor policy choices in Asia, Dhaka
[43]. Siddiqui, T. and Farah, M. (2011) Facing the Challenges of Labour Migration from Bangladesh, Portfolio, Policy Brief, issue 4 (December), IDS-D-Net-RMMRU (Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit)
[44]. Stanley, L. (1990) (ed.) Feminist Praxis, Research, Theory and Epistemology in Feminist Sociology, London: Routledge
[45]. The Guardian (2013) Bangladesh's garment industry still offers women best work opportunity, Report by Syed Zain Al-Mahmood on Global Development
[46]. White, S.C. (2013) Patriarchal investments: Marriage, dowry and economic change in rural Bangladesh, Working Paper no.19, Bath Papers in International Development and Wellbeing, A working paper series of the Centre for Development Studies, University of Bath, pp. 1-19

Abstract:
As globalization promotes 'export processing zones, free trade zones and world market factories', it creates employment opportunities for both men and women, but especially for women (Mujahid et al 2014:8). In Bangladesh, the impact of globalization and trade liberalization is characterized by feminization of the internal labour force. The garment industry alone employs 3.6 million women (The Guardian 23 May, 2013). Availability of paid work in the factories has placed greater responsibilities on many of these women to meet the survival needs of their families (Bacchus 2005). For some, it has conferred breadwinning status. International migration of women to the Gulf States, in order to improve the family income and raise the living standard of their families is also a recent phenomenon in rural Bangladesh. In this article, I examine the economic and social consequences of different types of labour migration of the women of Char Khankhanapur and Decree Charchandpur and investigate whether or not working as migrant labourers improves their lives. I focus on how women experience their work as migrant labourers and explore the reasons underlying their decisions to migrate. I draw on the case studies of migrant women from both villages to discuss the relation between women's work and enhancement of their status from the Women in Development (WID) perspective.

IJSSER is Member of