Aspiring for Change: Ethiopian Women's Labor Migration to the Middle East. (13th May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schewel, Kerilyn
• Is Part Of: Social forces. Volume 100:Number 4(2022)
• Page Start: 1619
• Page End: 1641
• Publication Date: 2021-05-13
• Subjects: Social change -- Periodicals; Social history -- Periodicals; Sociology -- Research -- Periodicals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1093/sf/soab051
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0037-7732

Abstract

Abstract: This paper examines why young women in rural Ethiopia decide to migrate as domestic workers to the Middle East. Based on survey data and 84 in-depth interviews, it explores the forces shaping young women's aspirations and capabilities to migrate, challenging the dominant narratives of trafficking, deception, and victimization that surround this migration corridor. It finds, first, that migration to the Middle East is one migration trajectory embedded within a broader urban transition occurring across Ethiopia. For rural women, labor emigration is often a long-distance, short-term strategy to access the capital needed to realize a long-term, short-distance move to town. Second, the aspiration to migrate emerges at a particular moment in the life course, as young women transition from adolescence into adulthood and when local opportunities do not provide promising pathways to achieve their life aspirations. This paper shows why labor emigration can simultaneously be a reasonable, capabilities-enhancing choice for young women and a response to a critical lack of capabilities in other domains of their lives. Finally, through applying an aspiration–capability framework, this paper advances a theoretical approach that avoids the common binary between "forced" and "voluntary" migration and thus contributes to advancing research on other forms of precarious migration occurring under highly constrained conditions.