Female labor migration and the restructuring of migration discourse: a study of female workers from Chitwan, Nepal

Doctor of PhilosophyDepartment of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social WorkLaszlo KulcsarNepali women are often barred from going abroad through discriminatory state policies, and the women engaging in foreign employment are generally perceived as "loose" women in Nepalese society. The female migrant workers are also represented as lacking "agency" and "victims" of sex trafficking in the Nepalese media. Despite the unfavorable socio-political contexts, a substantial number of Nepali women have engaged in transnational labor migration in the last two decades, often "illegally" by using the open Nepal-India border to reach the destination countries. The study investigates the impact of women's migration on the dominant discourse relating to female workers' sexuality and agency by analyzing the experiences of female workers from Chitwan, Nepal, who have returned after working as housemaids in the Persian Gulf. The study finds that the dominant discourse is both contested and reproduced during the emigration process and after the return of female workers. However, the dominant discourse is overall restructured in the emigrant communities due to women's participation in foreign employment and return with diverse experiences. As women's varied migration experiences are hardly reported in the national media, the discursive change in the local communities does not necessarily bring a (similar) change in the national discourse. While violence prevailed against female workers in the Gulf, most acts of violence were indirect and non-physical. The extreme forms of violence, such as physical and sexual abuses, which are usually reported in the media, were somewhat uncommon. The major complaints of the respondents were low wages, withholding and non-payment of wages, withholding of passport, extremely long hours of work, constant criticism, lack of adequate rest, and the feeling of confinement. The violence against the housemaids was largely facilitated by the sponsorship-based labor recruitment system in the Gulf that bound the migrant workers with their employers. At the micro level, the living arrangement (having to live with the employers) was also a contributing factor to violence against the female workers. The female workers who were employed in a household with multiple housemaids were less likely to experience violence than those who were the only maid in the employer's house

Migration governance and agrarian and rural development: Comparative lessons from China, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal and Thailand

The purpose of this policy brief is to draw together key comparative lessons on different types of migration governance interventions in the AGRUMIG project research regions and examine how they support positive feedback loops between migration and agrarian and rural development. This exploration offers stories of success and omission. Moving beyond the elusive triple-win situation on the benefits of migration for destination and origin countries, migrants themselves and the highly politicized domain of the migration-development nexus, our point of departure is that there are vital prospects for augmenting the positive impacts of migration for societies globally. This brief focuses on how migration governance interventions are potentially useful in maximizing the gains between migration and agrarian development in the sending communities in China, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal and Thailand

COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy in low- and middle-income countries

Widespread acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines is crucial for achieving sufficient immunization coverage to end the global pandemic, yet few studies have investigated COVID-19 vaccination attitudes in lower-income countries, where large-scale vaccination is just beginning. We analyze COVID-19 vaccine acceptance across 15 survey samples covering 10 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in Asia, Africa and South America, Russia (an upper-middle-income country) and the United States, including a total of 44,260 individuals. We find considerably higher willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine in our LMIC samples (mean 80.3%; median 78%; range 30.1 percentage points) compared with the United States (mean 64.6%) and Russia (mean 30.4%). Vaccine acceptance in LMICs is primarily explained by an interest in personal protection against COVID-19, while concern about side effects is the most common reason for hesitancy. Health workers are the most trusted sources of guidance about COVID-19 vaccines. Evidence from this sample of LMICs suggests that prioritizing vaccine distribution to the Global South should yield high returns in advancing global immunization coverage. Vaccination campaigns should focus on translating the high levels of stated acceptance into actual uptake. Messages highlighting vaccine efficacy and safety, delivered by healthcare workers, could be effective for addressing any remaining hesitancy in the analyzed LMICs.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Is fair trade “fair”? : a study of handmade paper producers in Nepal

Master of ArtsDepartment of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social WorkGerad D. MiddendorfThe label “fair-trade” might seem to be a definitive designation: either a product is or isn’t. In fact, a continuum exists, resultant mostly from the participation in fair-trade by diverse groups of producer organizations, buyers, certifying organizations, and consumers. Therefore, the way fair-trade is perceived and practiced cannot be presumed to be homogenous. In order to better understand the complexities of fair-trade, a qualitative study was carried out to examine one fair-trade product and its producers. Two Nepalese handmade paper companies, Bhaktapur Craft Paper (BCP) and Get Paper Industry (GPI), were studied to gain insight into the producers’ perceptions, interpretations, and practices of fair-trade. This study also assesses the impact of fair-trade affiliation on the socio-economic conditions of producers and workers. To provide the opportunity for comparison, the cases of BCP and GPI were also compared, where possible, to those of a non-fair-trade company, Bagmati Paper Industries (BPI). The study finds that the fair-trade producer organizations were affiliated with fair-trade networks primarily to promote their business by way of the multiple and committed trading partners involved in fair-trade. Also, affiliation seemed to have positive impacts on the overall business of the paper companies, contributing to growth in sales over the years. Likewise, different training programs sponsored by fair-trade organizations, such as Fair Trade Group Nepal and World Fair Trade Organization-Asia, and fair-trade buyers also contributed to the capacity enhancement of producer organizations. The producers in the paper companies lacked an understanding of fair-trade due to a lack of participation in decision making, a high level of illiteracy among producers, and because management did not consider producer awareness of fair-trade as significant. The study finds positive impacts of fair-trade involvement on the producers’ socio-economic position: a company’s participation in and practice of fair-trade is positively related to improvement in the socio-economic conditions of producers. Considering wages, work-hours, working conditions, and job satisfaction of workers, the fair-trade companies were determined to more favorably affect workers’ lives than the non-fair-trade company

COVID‐19 through the lens of seasonal agriculture in South Asia

75% of the world's poor reside in rural areas where the local economy is tied to agriculture. We interpret new panel data on COVID-19 from Nepal and Bangladesh in relation to agricultural seasonality. Conditions in April–June 2020 were comparable to a typical lean season even though the pandemic arrived at harvest time. Income losses stem from both depressed local employment as well as lower migration and remittances. We also document indirect adverse health impacts on nutrition and mental health. Findings are specific to the nature of economic activity at harvest, and effective pandemic policy must evolve with the agricultural season

COVID-19 and mental health in 8 low- and middle-income countries: A prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and associated mitigation policies created a global economic and health crisis of unprecedented depth and scale, raising the estimated prevalence of depression by more than a quarter in high-income countries. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) suffered the negative effects on living standards the most severely. However, the consequences of the pandemic for mental health in LMICs have received less attention. Therefore, this study assesses the association between the COVID-19 crisis and mental health in 8 LMICs. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a prospective cohort study to examine the correlation between the COVID-19 pandemic and mental health in 10 populations from 8 LMICs in Asia, Africa, and South America. The analysis included 21,162 individuals (mean age 38.01 years, 64% female) who were interviewed at least once pre- as well as post-pandemic. The total number of survey waves ranged from 2 to 17 (mean 7.1). Our individual-level primary outcome measure was based on validated screening tools for depression and a weighted index of depression questions, dependent on the sample. Sample-specific estimates and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between COVID-19 periods and mental health were estimated using linear regressions with individual fixed effects, controlling for independent time trends and seasonal variation in mental health where possible. In addition, a regression discontinuity design was used for the samples with multiple surveys conducted just before and after the onset of the pandemic. We aggregated sample-specific coefficients using a random-effects model, distinguishing between estimates for the short (0 to 4 months) and longer term (4+ months). The random-effects aggregation showed that depression symptoms are associated with a increase by 0.29 standard deviations (SDs) (95% CI [-.47, -.11], p-value = 0.002) in the 4 months following the onset of the pandemic. This change was equivalent to moving from the 50th to the 63rd percentile in our median sample. Although aggregate depression is correlated with a decline to 0.21 SD (95% CI [-0.07, -.34], p-value = 0.003) in the period thereafter, the average recovery of 0.07 SD (95% CI [-0.09, .22], p-value = 0.41) was not statistically significant. The observed trends were consistent across countries and robust to alternative specifications. Two limitations of our study are that not all samples are representative of the national population, and the mental health measures differ across samples. CONCLUSIONS: Controlling for seasonality, we documented a large, significant, negative association of the pandemic on mental health, especially during the early months of lockdown. The magnitude is comparable (but opposite) to the effects of cash transfers and multifaceted antipoverty programs on mental health in LMICs. Absent policy interventions, the pandemic could be associated with a lasting legacy of depression, particularly in settings with limited mental health support services, such as in many LMICs. We also demonstrated that mental health fluctuates with agricultural crop cycles, deteriorating during "lean", pre-harvest periods and recovering thereafter. Ignoring such seasonal variations in mental health may lead to unreliable inferences about the association between the pandemic and mental health