Limited Yet Skilled: Female Migration From Pakistan And The Gendered Structure Of Overseas Mobility

Abstract

One of most under-researched aspects of the large and economically important labour-migration system in Pakistan is the migration of women. Despite Pakistan being one of the seven largest emigration countries in the world, the number of women registered as outflows is never more than 1 percent. This study discussed the patterns, skill mix, occupation structure, geographic origin and destination of female labour migrants of Pakistan using the official statistics of the Pakistan Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BEOE) in the year 2019-2022. It is based on the Human Capital Theory, Push-Pull Theory, Gender and Migration Theory, and the Feminist Migration Framework. Results indicate that there is a dual migration pattern where about 45 percent of the female migrants are in highly skilled and highly qualified categories- most of the medical field and managers- where 41 percent make up the low and semi-skilled positions including domestic workers and general labourers. The UAE and Saudi Arabia, together with a corresponding share of all female outflows, are absorbing, or reflected in their geography of male migration, which is Gulf-centric. The leading cities of origin among the women migrants are Karachi and Lahore, but a significant proportion of the female migrants have their origin in secondary[1] towns and rural regions. On the parameters of the structure of female migration, there were practically no changes during all three periods: pre-COVID (2019), COVID (20202021), as well as early post-COVID (2022). The paper concludes that migration of women in Pakistan is both selective, limited, and highly gendered: selective in the sense that migration opportunities are concentrated among highly educated women, and among some low-skilled domestic workers; limited in the sense that migration opportunity is limited to highly educated women, and to some low-skilled domestic workers; and gendered in the sense that the opportunities and vulnerabilities of migration are both gendered: gendered in the sense that it is the structural inequality which conditions both the opportunities and vulnerabilities of migration. The policy recommendations cover the migration governance of migrant women that are gender sensitive, skills development and legal protection of migrant women.