Weighing the Options: The gendered representation of care in Sri Lanka and its impact on female agency in relation to migrating for work

The paper analyses the social constructions of ‘gender’ and ‘care’ as manifest in the experiences of female international labour migration in Sri Lanka. Female international labour migration as domestic workers in the last three decades has triggered a care crisis observable at the level of the families as well as the communities of migrant workers. It has become a cause of social discomfort, with critical public opinion gaining momentum in influencing policy responses that may adversely affect women migrant workers. In the Sri Lankan context notions of ‘care’ affiliated with nurturing and parenting practices are deeply rooted in the notion of motherhood, and hence women’s migration for work abroad can be easily interpreted as putting the family in jeopardy. By illustrating how gendered representation of the care crisis has shaped the different rationalities and responses towards female migration, the paper brings to the fore the mutual interplay between policy and societal responses, showing how the female-centred construction of care shapes state responses, which in turn could impact the propensity and choice of women to join the migrant labour force. The National Labour Migration policy of 2009 reflects how state rationality of efficiency appears to be built on the premise of protecting the family and the children left behind by means of institutional safeguards to minimize social costs. Simultaneously, skilled migration is being promoted to ensure a higher value of export labour, which would imply curtailing female migration as domestic workers categorized as unskilled. The migration histories of mothers and daughters in the Sri Lankan village of Boraluwa Gama, show how the ‘substitution’ of male skilled workers for female unskilled workers is not always mirrored at the level of the family. Making choices occurs in a zone of ‘social legitimacy’ where negotiation between opposing values and norms held by the state and community on the one hand and the individual on the other are taking place. For women weighing options often involves a complex process of compromises in view of the fact that they often bear the moral burden of care alone. While the discourses of the State and community have established a strong presence in this zone of negotiation, the views and experiences of the men and women within the migrant communities remain unexplored, making the dialogue incomplete. The paper concludes that the implications of the skewed burden of care for men and women and how notions of personhood and wellbeing cannot be separated from relations of care between parents and their children remains to be addressed. Without addressing this imbalance, care and its organization will continue to remain a central ingredient in determining the extent of social legitimacy for women to exercise their right to choose migration as an option for livelihood and personal development.