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ABSTRACT
The earnings of Sri Lankan migrant women who work abroad as housemaids account for a significant proportion of overseas remittances to Sri Lanka. Literature on the “maid trade” of Sri Lanka shows that migrant women, 70% of whom are mothers, become primary wage earners for their left behind households. Central to this study is a focus on how the gendered construction of “breadwinner” and “mothering” plays out when left behind families are dependent on these women’s earnings for survival. Based on ethnographic data, it demonstrates that this results not in a reversal but in a reconfiguration of gendered roles in households.
ABSTRACT IN SINHALA
ශ්රී ලංකාවට ලැබෙන විදේශීය ප්රේෂණ වලින් සැලකියයුතු ප්රතිශතයක් ලැබෙන්නේ විදෙහගත ලංකික ගෘහ සේවිකාවගෙනි. ශ්රී ලංකාවේ " ගෘහ සේවිකා වෙළඳ " (maid trade) පිලිබඳ සාහිත්ය පෙන්න්වන්නේ, විදේශගත ගෘහසේවිකාවන්ගෙන් සියයට හත්තෙවක් මව් වරුන් වන අතැර, ඔව්හු තම ගෘහස්ත වල මුලික අදායම් උපයන්නද වන බවය්. මෙම විශ්ලේෂණයට කේන්ද්රීය වන්නේ, ගෘහස්තය්යේ යැපීම විදේශ ගත ගෘහසේවිකාවගේ ඉපයුම් මත රැදෙන විට, ගෘහස්තයේ ඉස්ත්රී පුරුෂ වාධයේ නිර්මාණයට කෙතෙක් දුරට " මුලික පෝෂකයා" සහ "මාතෘ බාවය", බලපාන්නේද යන්නිය්. මානව දත්ත පදනම් කරගත් මෙම විශ්ලේෂණයෙන් පෙන්නුම් කරන්නේ පවුලේ මුලික ආධායම් උපයන්නා ඉස්ත්රිය වූ විට ගෘහස්තයේ ඇතිවන්නේ ඉස්ත්රී පුරුෂ වාධි නිර්මාණයේ ප්රටිවර්දනයක් (reversal) නොව එහි ප්රති විත්යාසක් (re-configuration) බවය්
Notes on contributor
Vidyamali SAMARASINGHE is a Professor of International Development in the School of International Service at American University, Washington DC. She earned her Ph.D. in Economic Geography from Cambridge University, England. Her research focus is on Gender and Development issues in the Global South, with a particular focus on feminization of work and migration, gender policies and female sex trafficking in Asia. She has authored, co-authored and co-edited books and monographs and published extensively in scholarly journals. Email:[email protected]
Notes
1 The certification process required documentation and signatures by several government officials at local and regional levels of the administration and from the SLBFE (Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign employment).
2 Two among them, Ranji from Kadugannawa and Kusum from Samagi Watta were planning to return after six months to the Middle East with new contracts.
3 These two households were identified with the assistance of a recruitment agency. Households with migrant housemaids are scattered across rural locations while others were in urban Colombo.
4 The large majority of the Tamil Plantation population lives on tea plantations in the Central highlands of Sri Lanka, while a minority lives in the Southwest of the country in the rubber plantation districts. Our interviewee was living in Ingiriya, a predominantly rubber plantation district in the Kalutara district.
5 The main field surveys were undertaken in Sri Lanka in December 2016 and July 2017.
6 The main database was from government sources such as the SLBFE and Sri Lankan NGOS. Mainly women’s NGOs, such as the Women’s Media Collective, and CENWOR had undertaken case study-based data gathering. The participants of my study were not members of any NGO.
7 1. What prompted you to seek employment overseas? 2. Who were/was the designated caregiver/s for the children in your absence and did you think that the left behind children were looked after? 3. Who managed your earnings while you were away? And, 4. What changes, if any, do you see in the in your position and that of your husband since your return?
8 Conversations, whenever possible, with left behind men covered general topics such as children’s routines, their own wage work and time management.
9 Sri Lankan Public schools require uniforms, which include white dresses for girls and blue short pants and white shirts for primary school boys and white long pants and white shirts for secondary school boys, with socks and shoes.
10 Lalitha was able to send enough funds for Suresh to attend a tuition class. However, Suresh did not score enough points at the scholarship exam to be admitted to a prestigious school nearby.
11 “Lamai badginne inna venawa”. Children would have gone hungry.
12 Many aspiring migrant housemaids were known to by-pass the SLBFE, which is the government agency responsible for Sri Lankan migrant workers overseas.
13 “Oya gehennunge weda keruhama wata pita minussu monawada kiyanne”: What would people say when they see me doing ‘women's’ work?
14 Interestingly, the women also had concerns that their husbands, without them would seek other women: “Vena Genu passeng yuy.” But, by and large, they were willing to take the risk as they all prioritized the potential for higher earnings that would help their families.
15 Ranji and Sriya had a four year old son, Ranjan, while Kusum and Justin had a five-year old son, Ashok and a seven-year old daughter, Dilani when the two women first went overseas. Ranjan was 10; Ashok was 11 and Dilani was 13 at the time of my interviews.
16 The homes did not have indoor plumbing. The boys were taken to the outdoor communal tap for washing and bathing.
17 While pre-departure arrangements were made for female relatives to live in or be close by, this arrangement did not work out in all cases. In two of the dual-parent homes in Samagi Watta, the children went to live with their paternal grandparents who lived outside Colombo.
18 Weekend private tuition classes, for which parents paid fees or a private educational institution are extensively used to prepare school children for the fifth standard (Grade 5 students) scholarship exam and the General Certificate Ordinary Level (GCE O levels) exams for 10th graders. These exams are conducted once a year by the Sri Lanka Department of Education.
19 Admittedly, some of the women were badly treated by their employees in the Middle East. However, none of them complained about not receiving the agreed-upon wages.
20 On her return to Sri Lanka, Lalitha secured employment with a house-keeping crew in a nearby hotel.
21 “Lajjai” (Feel ashamed/embarrassed).
22 “Rata giyata passé eyata one de thamai Karanne. Mama kiyanne de gannan ganne nehe” (“Since she went overseas she does what she wants to do. She does not listen to me”).